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Points on a straight line can be used to represent real numbers. This geometrical representation of real numbers as points along a straight line is sometimes very helpful. It provides a preliminary aid to understand relationship among real numbers involved in certain cases of analysis. It readily suggests various ideas which may be followed for the needful solution of a problem. In particular, in cases involving consideration of real numbers very close to each other it is of great help to the beginner.
Let  be a straight line extending indefinitely on both sides. Mark two points and on it between , such that is on the right of , i.e. lies between and . We now regard the part  on the right of  as positive and  on the left of as negative. Such a straight line for which positive and negative sides are fixed is called a directed straight line.
As shown above, let the point  be taken to represent the number  and the point be taken to represent the number . Since any rational number can be expressed as , we can divide into equal parts and take equal to  such parts on the right or left of  according as m is positive or negative. In case , point  is at  itself. The point thus obtained represents the rational number  and we say that  corresponds to the point , or  corresponds to the rational number . Hence, we see that every rational number is represented by some point on the directed straight line with as unit of the scale.
However, there remain points on to which no rational number corresponds its representation. In particular, consider a point  on the right of  such that  is equal to the side of the equilateral triangle whose circumscribing circle is of radius . Then  Since is not rational, no rational number corresponds to the point . We find that the set of rational numbers is insufficient to provide a complete picture of a straight line.
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