At last I found a definition of real numbers. Richard Dedekind defined them as "cuts" of rational numbers. You will find his text translated to english here: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/21016
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It is not important, but I was curious after having read many textbooks starting with "definition" of real numbers. Newton did not have the definition. Yet he accomplished a lot. Another thing quite interesting is that there seems to be a definition of "line". Not the straight line, but a kind of curve, that splits the plane in two halves. The text was far too complex for me to understand. I use the term "line" frequently, dispite my lack of knowledge about the definition. Hope I have got it right.
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