Characterizations of the reals

80 Views Asked by At

I know that one characterization of the reals is that it is the only Dedekind-complete ordered field. Are there any other characterizations of the reals as a field?

1

There are 1 best solutions below

3
On BEST ANSWER

Here are a few I know off hand:

  1. The reals are the unique dense linear order without endpoints that is both Dedekind complete and separable.

  2. The reals are the terminal Archimedean ordered field.

  3. The real compact interval can be constructed uniquely as a terminal co-algebra for a certain “wedge” functor on the category of bi-pointed topological spaces.