Rational Numbers
Chapter 1 of Class 8 maths, "Rational Numbers", teaches what rational numbers are (numbers written as p/q where p and q are integers and q ≠ 0), and explores their key properties including closure, commutativity, associativity, and distributivity across addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division operations.
- 1A rational number is any number that can be written as p/q where p and q are integers and q ≠ 0. Examples: 2/3, −6/7, 9/−5, and even 0, −2, and 4 (written as 0/1, −2/1, 4/1).
- 2Rational numbers are closed under addition, subtraction, and multiplication (the sum, difference, and product of any two rational numbers is always a rational number), but NOT closed under division (division by zero is undefined).
- 3Addition and multiplication of rational numbers are both commutative (a + b = b + a and a × b = b × a), but subtraction and division are NOT commutative.
- 4Addition and multiplication of rational numbers are both associative (a + (b + c) = (a + b) + c and a × (b × c) = (a × b) × c), but subtraction and division are NOT associative.
- 5Zero is the additive identity (a + 0 = a for any rational number a) and 1 is the multiplicative identity (a × 1 = a for any rational number a).

