3
More Numbers than You Can Imagine
The methods of theoretical physics should be applicable
to all those branches of thought in which the
essential features are expressible with numbers.
Paul Dirac
1933 Nobel Prize Banquet Speech
People use numbers for counting, percentages, ratios, prices, math homework, their taxes, and other practical applications.
1 0 −1 9.99999 − √2 + 1 22/7 3.14159265… π
All these are examples of real numbers. In this chapter we look at the properties of real numbers and especially those of subsets like the integers. We extend those to other collections like the complex numbers that are core to understanding quantum computing.
For example...