p-adic analysis [Spring 2007]
Warren Sinnott
The familiar construction of the real numbers from the rationals
by adjoining limits of Cauchy sequences is not the only way to
"complete" the rationals; other notions of the "size" of a
rational number can be used. We will describe how to construct
the p-adic numbers Q_p (p any prime number) and illustrate how
many familiar results and constructions from calculus and
analysis also hold in Q_p.

