- #1
Uranian
- 5
- 0
Homework Statement
"True or false: there is a smallest positive number. Explain."
Homework Equations
N/A, but for practice I'll try my hand at phrasing it mathematically:
[itex]\forall[/itex]x[itex]\in[/itex](0,∞)[itex]\exists[/itex]z[itex]\in[/itex](0,∞):(z<x)
The Attempt at a Solution
My issue with the question is mathematically proving it - I'm a bit paranoid because I've been losing a lot of marks on communication and I don't think it'll be enough for me in this particular class to simply say that the statement is false because there is an infinite amount of numbers between 0 and 1. So, I was thinking it could be proven in a way similar to how we prove there is no largest real number...
Let z be the smallest positive real number such that 0<z<x where x[itex]\in[/itex](0,∞):
let x=z-1
then:
z<z-1
0<-1 which is not true. Therefore, the statement is false and there is no smallest positive number.
Is this a logical argument? This is my first course in proofs, and I'm a freshman, so I don't feel very confident in constructing my arguments. Mainly I would just like some feedback, and if I'm doing something wrong, could someone hint towards the correct argument...? Any response is much appreciated : )