• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.263-279
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• 2015

The introduction of real numbers is one of the most difficult steps in the teaching of school mathematics since the mathematical justification of the extension from rational to real numbers requires the completeness property. The author elucidated what questions about real numbers can be unanswered as the "institutional didactic void" in school mathematics defining real numbers as the union of the rational and irrational numbers. The pre-service teachers' explanations on the extension from rational to real numbers and the raison d'$\hat{e}$tre of arbitrary non-recurring decimals showed the superficial and fragmentary understanding of real numbers. Connecting school mathematics to university mathematics via the didactic void, the author discussed how pre-service teachers could break the illusion of transparency about the real number.

• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.67-79
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• 2014

When imaginary numbers were first encountered in the 16th century, mathematicians were able to calculate the imaginary numbers the same as they are today. However, it required 200 years to mathematically acknowledge the existence of imaginary numbers. The new mathematical situation that arose with a development in mathematics required a harmony of real numbers and imaginary numbers. As a result, the concept of complex number became clear. A history behind the development of complex numbers involved a process of determining a comprehensive perspective that ties real numbers and imaginary numbers in a single category, complex numbers. This came after a resolution of conflict between real numbers and imaginary numbers. This study identified the new perspective and way of mathematical thinking emerging from resolving the conflicts. Also educational implications of the analysis were discussed.

• Korean Journal of Logic
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.137-176
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• 2011

Bob Hale recently proposed a theory of real numbers based on abstraction principles. In his theory, real numbers are regarded as ratios of quantities and the criteria of identities of ratios of quantities are given by an Eudoxan ratio principle. The reason why Hale defines real numbers as ratios of quantities is that he wants to satisfy Frege's requirement that arithmetical concepts should be defined to be adequate for their universal applicability. In this paper I show why Hale's explanation of applications of real numbers fails to satisfy Frege's requirement, and I propose an alternative explanation. At first I show that there are some gaps between his explanation of the concept of quantity and his stipulation of domains of quantities, and that those gaps give rise to some difficulties in his explanation of applications of real numbers. Secondly I introduce a new ratio principle which can be applied to any kinds of quantities, and I argue that it allows us an adequate explanation of the reason why real numbers as ratios of quantities can be universally applicable. Finally I enquire into some procedures of the measurement of quantities, and I propose some principles which we should presuppose in order to successfully apply real numbers to the measurement of quantities.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.163-178
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• 2012

The efforts to represent the numbers based on the decimal system give us fundamental understanding to construct and teach the concept network on the related knowledge of elementary and secondary school mathematics. In the process to represent natural numbers, integers, rational numbers, real numbers as decimal system, we will classify the extended decimal system. Moreover we will obtain the view to classify real numbers. In this paper, we will study the didactical significance of mathematical knowledge, which arise from process to represent real numbers as decimal system, starting from decimal system representation of natural numbers, and provide the theoretical base about the classification of real numbers. This study help math teachers to understand school mathematics in critical inside-measurement and provide the theore tical background of related knowledge. Furthermore, this study provide a clue to construct coherent curriculum and internal connections of related mathematical knowledge.

• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.55-66
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• 2005

In our school mathmatics, the irrational numbers and the real numbers are defined and instructed on the basis of decimal fractions. In relation to this fact, we identified the essences of the real number and the irrational number defined by the decimal fractions through the historical analysis. It is revealed that the formation of real numbers means the numerical measurements of all magnitudes and the formation of irrational numbers means the numerical measurements of incommensurable magnitudes. Finally, we suggest instructional plan for the meaninful understanding of the real number concept.

• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.53-75
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• 2012

When imaginary numbers were first encountered in the 16th century, mathematicians were able to calculate the imaginary numbers the same as they are today. However, it required 200 years to mathematically acknowledge the existence of imaginary numbers. The new mathematical situation that arose with a development in mathematics required a harmony of real numbers and imaginary numbers. As a result, the concept of complex number became clear. A history behind the development of complex numbers involved a process of determining a comprehensive perspective that ties real numbers and imaginary numbers in a single category, complex numbers. This came after a resolution of conflict between real numbers and imaginary numbers. This study identified the new perspective and way of mathematical thinking emerging from resolving the conflicts. Also educational implications of the analysis were discussed.

• Honam Mathematical Journal
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.542-554
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• 2023

Given a real number α, the Lagrange number of α is the supremum of all real numbers L > 0 for which the inequality |α - p/q| < (Lq²)^-1 holds for infinitely many rational numbers p/q. All Lagrange numbers less than 3 can be arranged as a set {l_p/q : p/q ∈ ℚ ∩ [0, 1]} using the Farey index. The present paper considers a function C(α) devised from Sturmian words. We demonstrate that the function C(α) contains all information on Lagrange numbers less than 3. More precisely, we prove that for any real number α ∈ (0, 1], the value C(α) - C(0) is equal to the sum of all numbers 3 - l_p/q where the Farey index p/q is less than α.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.595-605
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• 2014

Infinite decimals have an infinite number of digits, chosen arbitrary and independently, to the right side of the decimal point. Since infinite decimals are ambiguous numbers impossible to write them down completely, the infinite decimal representation accompanies unavoidable opaqueness. This article focused the transparent aspect of infinite decimal representation with respect to the completeness axiom of real numbers. Long before the formalization of real number concept in $19^{th}$ century, many mathematicians were able to deal with real numbers relying on this transparency of infinite decimal representations. This analysis will contribute to overcome the double discontinuity caused by the different conceptualizations of real numbers in school and academic mathematics.

• Journal of the Chungcheong Mathematical Society
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.165-172
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• 2014

In this paper, we derive some valuable inequalities of Rado's and Poponov's types on the open interval of positive real numbers, and then show weighted generalizations of Rado's and Poponov's inequalities on the set of positive real numbers equipped with compactly supported probability measure.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2000.06b
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• pp.250-253
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• 2000

In this paper, we Implement a new arithmetic computation for MPEG audio data to overcome the limitations of real number processing in the fixed-point arithmetics, such as: overheads in processing time and power consumption. We aims at efficiently dealing with real numbers by extending the fixed-point arithmetic manipulation for floating-point numbers in MPEG audio data, and implementing the DSP libraries to support the manipulation and computation of real numbers with the fixed-point resources.