Chapter 2. Number Systems and Properties

This chapter introduces you to concepts relating to how you identify and talk about numbers. Not all numbers are the same. Even when they are the same, you can organize and represent them in different ways. The primary number systems consist of counting numbers, whole numbers, integers, rational numbers, irrational numbers, and real numbers. In addition to systems of numbers, you investigate the commutative, associative, and distributive properties of numbers. Further, you explore how combinations of positive and negative numbers affect the outcomes of your calculations. With this prospect in view, this chapter offers the following topics, among others:

• Natural or counting numbers

• Whole numbers

• Integers

• Rational and irrational numbers

• Real numbers

• Number properties

• Inverses and identities of numbers

• Multiplication and division involving negative and positive numbers