Rational numbers and whole numbers are two different types of numbers, and they have a special relationship.
First, let's talk about what each type of number is. Whole numbers are all the numbers that you can count starting from zero and going up: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and so on. They don't include any negative numbers or fractions.
Now, rational numbers are a bit broader. A rational number is any number that can be written as a fraction, where the top number (the numerator) is an integer and the bottom number (the denominator) is a non-zero integer. This means that all whole numbers can actually be considered rational numbers because you can write them as fractions too! For example, the whole number 3 can be written as 3/1, which is a fraction, so it's also a rational number.
However, not all rational numbers are whole numbers. For instance, the number 1/2 is a rational number because it can be written as a fraction, but it is not a whole number since it is not a counting number and is less than 1.
To sum it up:
- All whole numbers are rational numbers (like 5 can be written as 5/1).
- Not all rational numbers are whole numbers (like 1/3 or 0.75).
So, the two types of numbers are related, but they are not the same!
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