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Math - Questions and Answers from our Archives  Is There a
Universal Set of All Numbers?  Date: 06/16/2004 at 13:56:47
From: John Subject: The universal set of all numbers.  Dear Dr.
Math,  The real numbers (including all its subsets) and the
imaginary numbers  numbers agreed upon today?  New numbers are
created to help answer new problems.  Has there been a  need to
create a set of numbers other than the complex numbers?  I  have
not been able to find an answer to this question from texts.
Date: 06/16/2004 at 21:26:31 From: Doctor Vogler Subject: Re:
The universal set of all numbers.  Hi John,  Thanks for writing
to Dr. Math.  Interesting question.  There are different ways to
create "new numbers," and I'll describe them briefly for you.
I'll start with the notion of a mathematical "field"--this is a
word that describes any collection of numbers that satisfies
several basic rules, including closure under addition,
subtraction, and multiplication