Question

Is there any natural number that has no predecessor? If there is one, please find out.

Answer 1

Hint:- No predecessor means that number is not a natural number . So, we had to find the number which is the first natural number.

As we know that the predecessor of a number is one less than a number.

And the successor of a number is one more than the given number.

As we know that natural numbers are the sets of numbers starting from 1 and goes on till infinity.

Natural numbers are {1, 2, 3, 4, ………………}

And if the given number is a natural number then its predecessor and successor will also be a natural number.

So, here we had to find the number that has no predecessor.
As we know that 1 is the first natural number.

So, it will not have a predecessor.
Because the predecessor of any number x is x – 1.
And 1 – 1 = 0, which is not a natural number.

Hence, 1 will be a number that has no predecessor.

Note:- Whenever we came up with this type of problem where we are asked to find a predecessor or successor of a number then we should remember that the predecessor of a number is one less than the given number and the successor of a number is one more than the given number.