“Just as negative and fractional rational numbers are formed by a new creation, and as the laws of operating with these numbers must and can be reduced to the laws of operating with positive integers, so we must endeavor completely to define irrational numbers by means of the rational numbers alone. The question only remains how to do this.”

p, 125
Stetigkeit und irrationale Zahlen (1872)

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Richard Dedekind 13
German mathematician 1831–1916

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