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Comment by drdeca

3 days ago

Such a thing would not be a field.

You can define an additive group $\frac{1}{n}\mathbb{Z}$ if you like. However (for $n > 1$) it would not even be a ring, because it would not be closed under multiplication. (It's closure under multiplication would be $\mathbb{Z}[\frac{1}{n}]$, which would not have a smallest positive element, contrary to your design criterion.)

(Of course, you could define a partial multiplication on it. I don't think there's a good name for such a thing. I guess you could just call it "a subgroup of the rational numbers under addition, equipped with a partial multiplication operation that is defined and agrees with the usual multiplication on rational numbers when the result would still be in the subgroup")

The field Qp of p-adic numbers is complete with respect to the p-adic norm, but is not ordered in the same sense as field of real numbers. It's still uncountable infinite. If there is a sense in which "gaps" or Holes can be introduced without breaking its completeness, that would make it very useful for modeling reality

  • p-adics may be useful, yes, as may other fields.

    They do not constitute a field with a smallest non-zero element.