Question

Is -3 a rational, irrational, natural, whole, integer or real number?

Answer 1

`-3` is an integer (and thus also rational and real)

Explanation:

natural or whole numbers (the terms are generally considered synonymous) are non-negative "counting numbers". Occasionally they are denoted by the symbol `NN`. There are some differences in definitions which sometimes include `0` and sometimes exclude `0` from `NN`.

`-3` is negative so it is not a natural or whole number.

integers are natural numbers extended to include negative versions of all the natural numbers (and `0` if it were excluded by the "natural number definition"). The normal symbol for integers is `ZZ`

`-3` obviously falls in this category.

Rational numbers are numbers that can be expressed as a fraction or ratio of two integers. Rational numbers are denoted `QQ`.

Since `-3` can be written as `(-3)/1`, it could be argued that `-3` is also a real number.

Irrational numbers are numbers that can not be expressed as a ratio (or fraction) of two integers but could represent a linear distance.

Real numbers are a union of both rational and irrational numbers