The first order continuum
[For the entire collection see Zbl 0758.00020.] The author discusses and gives details of Tarski's discovery on the continuum, regarding the first order of the category of ordered real numbers, as well as elimination of quantifiers and its consequences, and the transfer principle. Developed by several other specialists, Tarski's discovery contributed to the creation of a new branch of mathematics, namely real algebraic geometry (although, along the history of mathematics, Tarski's contribution has been systematically overshadowed by that of Gödel on the concept of the discrete.) Actually, the continuum and the discrete represent two basic structures in mathematics: the former, formalized by ordered fields of real numbers -- constitutes our representation of the physical world (being based on the geometrical and physical notions of line, curve, surface, volume); the latter, taking the form of natural or integer numbers, conditions any compilation (all arithmetic operations). The thorough study of such formalizations is based on the distinction made between first order and higher order languages (see Russell and Whitehead's Principia Mathematica). Starting from the idea that any language consists of a given assembly of relations and operations, as well as of a series of individual constants, the distinction is made between languages (according to their levels), as based on the limitation of the quantifiers' charge. The essential idea is that, within first-order languages, the quantifiers' level is restricted exclusively to structural elements. The discussion of the real geometrical algebra starts from the geometrical and topological properties of the real algebraic sets (combinations), obtained as solutions of a system of polynomial equations with real coefficients. The main principles on which real algebraic geometry is based are: elimination of quantifiers; decomposition theorems; separation theorems; the real spectrum.
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