Natural numbers

If you start observing the numbers , you can find many amazing and interesting facts about them. Some of them are simply beautiful. There are different types of numbers i.e. positive, negative, prime, composite, rational, irrational etc. Here I am concentrating on the Natural numbers.

Natural Numbers are numbers used for normal counting.  When we have to count some objects we naturally start with 1, 2, 3 and carry on. That may be the reason these numbers are called Natural Numbers !  The set of numbers { 1,2,3,.....} is called the set of Natural numbers. When we use the term’ Set’ in Mathematics it means a collection of well defined objects.(  For example the collection of all good singers in a town can not be considered as a set because the term ‘good singers' is not well defined.  A person can be a good singer according to you but not according to your friend. )

The set of Natural Numbers is denoted by the English alphabet  N.

Most interestingly it is an infinite set i.e a never ending set. Therefore you cannot find the biggest natural number. Whichever number you take, simply add one to it and you get a bigger number than the first one. So it is a very large family of numbers. And the junior most member is the little cute number  1.

One is a very special number. It is known as the multiplicative identity or the identity element for multiplication. i.e if you multiply any number with one you get the same number as the answer. No other natural number possesses this quality. Therefore Number 1 is special.

One feels happy when he become first in a race or get the first prize in a competition. So you can feel the importance of the little number 1. 

This Bible verse comes to my mind 

"And whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.” Matthew 23:12

Number 1 has humbled itself and see how it is being exalted !

Another interesting fact about number 1 is that it is neither prime nor composite. It is the only natural number which has this speciality.

If you divide any number by number 1 you get the number itself. Most interestingly  you have to add 1 to any natural number to get the next natural number.

Isn’t it interesting ?