Addition
01-06-2026
As I've mentioned previously, the hard part of Real Analysis is forgetting what you know and really coming to the proofs with only what you've proven a-priori. Addition is a strong example of this because we (hopefully) all know how to add numbers. However, its not as simple as that. Lets start with a definition
Definition: Let be a natural number. To add to , we define . InductivelyFrom the Peano Axioms, suppose we have defined how to add to , then we can add ++ to by defining ++ ++. Formally, we can formulate a recursive definition to see this in action: Then, we have a series of lemmas that move us forward:
Lemma: For any natural number ,
Lemma: For any natural numbers and ,
Proposition (Commutative): For any natural numbers and ,
Proposition (Associative): For any natural numbers , we have
Proposition (Cancellation Law): Let be natural numbers, if , then
These can all be proved via induction. Next, some ideas regarding positivity in this number system:
Definition: A natural number is said to be positive iff if it not equal to 0.
Proposition: If is a positive natural number, and is a positive natural number, then is a positive natural numberAnd also by the proposition above.
Lemma: Let be a positive number, then there exists exactly one natural such that
The last stage of this section concerns itself with the ordering or natural numbers.
Definition: Let and be natural numbers. We say that is greater than or equal to iff where is any natural number.
Proposition: Let be natural numbers. Then:
- Order is reflexive
- Order is transitive
- Order is antisymmetric
- Addition preserves order
- iff
- iff for some positive number
Proposition (Trichotomy Law): Let and be natural numbers, then exactly one of the following statements is true: