In mathematics, a real number is a value that represents a quantity along a continuous line. The real numbers include all the rational numbers, such as integers,fraction, and all the irrational numbers such as ?2 (1.41421356… the square root of two, an irrational algebraic number) and ? (3.14159265…, a transcendental number). Real numbers can be thought of as points on an infinitely long line called the number line or real line, where the points corresponding to integers are equally spaced. Any real number can be determined by a possibly infinite decimal representation, where each consecutive digit is measured in units one tenth the size of the previous one. The real line can be thought of as a part of the complex plane, and correspondingly, complex numbers include real numbers as a special case. |