How do we represent rational numbers on a number line?
A number line looks something like this.
The positive integers are represented towards the right of 'zero'.
And the negative integers are represented to the left of 'zero'.
The numbers increase when we move towards the right.
And decrease when we move towards the left.
It's easy to plot integers, but how do we plot numbers like 'three by four'?
Before we understand how to plot this,
we need to understand a very crucial point.
Every integer except zero, has a corresponding integer.
The integer one, has 'minus one' as its corresponding integer.
The integer two, has 'minus two' as its corresponding integer.
Similarly, every negative integer
will have a corresponding positive integer.
This tells us that if we some how managed to plot 'three by four',
we can mark a point at the same distance
on the left hand side of zero which is 'minus 3 by 4'.
Now we can move on to the representation of rational numbers
on a number line.
To simplify things, we can classify the examples into two types.
Ones in which the numerator is less than the denominator.
And the other in which the numerator is greater than the denominator.
Note that we see only the numerical value
to compare the numerator and the denominator.
For example, if we are plotting 'minus 9 by 5',
we compare '9 and 5' and not 'minus 9 and 5'.
So 'minus 9 by 5' will come in the numerator
greater than denominator category.
We will look at two examples of the first category in the next video.
