Question

What are rational numbers? Give examples of five positive and negative rational numbers. Is there any rational number which is neither positive nor negative? Name it.

Answer 1

Hint: We answer this question by explaining the concept of Rational numbers. Rational numbers are usually represented in the form $\dfrac{p}{q}$ where $q\ne 0.$ This means that they are numbers which are fractions with a non-zero denominator. We then give examples for positive and negative rational numbers. Then we state a rational number which is neither positive nor negative.

Complete step by step answer:
In order to answer this question, let us explain the concept of Rational numbers. A Rational number is a number of the form $\dfrac{p}{q}$ where $q\ne 0.$ Here, rational numbers consist of a wide range of other numbers. Rational numbers include: integers like -2, 3, -55, etc, natural numbers which are positive numbers greater than 0 like 62, $\dfrac{63}{2},$ etc, whole numbers which are numbers greater or equal to 0 like 0, 13, 99, etc.
Now, we need to give a few examples of positive and negative rational numbers. A positive rational number is a number such that both the numbers p and q are both of the same sign in the fraction $\dfrac{p}{q}.$ A few examples of positive rational numbers are $\dfrac{5}{7},$ $\dfrac{1}{1000},$ $\dfrac{66}{23},$ $\dfrac{6}{1},$ and $\dfrac{2}{5}.$
Similarly, we explain what a negative rational number is. A negative rational number is a number such that both the numbers p and q are of the opposite signs in the numerator and denominator of the fraction $\dfrac{p}{q}.$ A few examples of negative rational numbers are $-\dfrac{4}{9},$ $\dfrac{1}{-10},$ $\dfrac{-6}{29},$ $-5,$ and $\dfrac{-8}{3}.$
A rational number which is positive is a number greater than 0. A rational number which is negative is less than 0. A rational number which is neither positive nor negative is the number 0 itself which is a neutral number.
Hence, the number 0 is a rational number which is neither positive nor negative.

Note: We need to note that the denominator for a rational number should never be 0. We can also give more examples for positive rational numbers by choosing any positive number greater than zero which could be an integer or fractional term. Similarly, for negative rational numbers, we choose a number which is less than 0.