Question

Which of the following is a natural number?
(a) 0
(b) 1
(c) -41
(d) \[\dfrac{1}{2}\]

Answer 1

Hint: Natural numbers are numbers greater than zero and are integers. Compare the 4 options given and find the number which fits to the description of natural numbers.

Complete step by step solution:
We know that a natural number is an integer. The natural numbers are always greater than zero i.e. they are positive integers. We can state the examples of natural numbers as 1, 2, 3 etc.
Natural numbers can’t be negative.
Now let us consider each option given in the question.
The first option is zero, we already said that natural numbers are greater than zero. Hence, zero is not a natural number.
The second option, 1 is a natural number according to the definition that we have been given.
The third option is -41, we said that natural numbers can’t be negative. If the option was 41 instead of (-41) it would have been a natural number.
Finally the last option \[\dfrac{1}{2}\], a natural number doesn’t include fractions.
Thus we can say that,
0 \[\to \] Not a natural number
1 \[\to \] Natural number
-41 \[\to \] Not a natural number
\[\dfrac{1}{2}\] \[\to \] Not a natural number
Hence 1 is the natural number.
\[\therefore \] Option (b) is the correct answer.

Note: Remember that zero is not a natural number. Zero is known as a neutral integer. Zero doesn’t have a positive or negative value. This is the confusion that most students face during the exams and they might end up choosing both (a) and (b) as the right answer. If we were asked to choose whole numbers then we could have chosen these options because 0 is included in the set of whole numbers.