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On Conway Numbers and Generalized Real Numbers

Conway’s Theory of Games and Numbers Constructively Reconstructed

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Reuniting the Antipodes — Constructive and Nonstandard Views of the Continuum

Part of the book series: Synthese Library ((SYLI,volume 306))

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Abstract

John Horton Conway presents in his book “On Numbers and Games” a general method to create a class of numbers containing all real numbers as well as every ordinal number. Using the logical law of excluded middle (LEM) he equips this class with the structure of a totally ordered field. This paper is a first step to investigate the contribution of Conway’s theory to the foundations of Constructive Nonstandard Analysis. In his book Conway suggests defining real numbers as (Conway) cuts in the set of rational numbers. Following his ideas, a constructive notion of real numbers will be developed. Parallels to and differences from the concept of generalized real numbers recently published by Fred Richman [Indag. Mathem., N. S., 9 (4) 595–606 (1998)] will be outlined.

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References

  1. Elwyn R. Berlekamp, John H. Conway, Richard K. Guy: Winning Ways, Academic Press, London, GB, 1982, 3rd ed. 1985.

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  2. John H. Conway: On Numbers and Games, Academic Press, London, GB, 1976.

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  3. John H. Conway: The surreals and the reals,in [4] 93–103.

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  6. Fred Richman: Generalized Real Numbers in Constructive Mathematics, Indag. Mathem., N. S., 9 (4) (1998) 595–606.

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  7. Fred Richman: The fundamental theorem of algebra: a constructive development without choice,Pacific J. Math., 196 (2000) 213–230.

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  8. Frank Rosemeier: A Constructive Approach to Conway’s Theory of Games,to appear in Seminarberichte aus dem Fachbereich Mathematik, FernUniversität Hagen (ISSN 0944–5838). http://www.fernuni-hagen.de/MATHEMATIK/ALGGEO/Mitarbeiter/Rosemeier/publ.html

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© 2001 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Rosemeier, F. (2001). On Conway Numbers and Generalized Real Numbers. In: Schuster, P., Berger, U., Osswald, H. (eds) Reuniting the Antipodes — Constructive and Nonstandard Views of the Continuum. Synthese Library, vol 306. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9757-9_19

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9757-9_19

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-5885-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-015-9757-9

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