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Dov Jarden gave a simple non-constructive proof that there exist two irrational numbers a and b, such that a b is rational: [28] [29] Consider √ 2 √ 2; if this is rational, then take a = b = √ 2. Otherwise, take a to be the irrational number √ 2 √ 2 and b = √ 2. Then a b = (√ 2 √ 2) √ 2 = √ 2 √ 2 · √ 2 = √ 2 2 = 2 ...
Written in 1873, this proof uses the characterization of as the smallest positive number whose half is a zero of the cosine function and it actually proves that is irrational. [ 3 ] [ 4 ] As in many proofs of irrationality, it is a proof by contradiction .
Apéry's original proof [3] [4] was based on the well-known irrationality criterion from Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet, which states that a number is irrational if there are infinitely many coprime integers p and q such that
In 1840, Liouville published a proof of the fact that e 2 is irrational [10] followed by a proof that e 2 is not a root of a second-degree polynomial with rational coefficients. [11] This last fact implies that e 4 is irrational. His proofs are similar to Fourier's proof of the irrationality of e.
It was probably the first number known to be irrational. [1] The fraction 99 / 70 (≈ 1.4142 857) is sometimes used as a good rational approximation with a reasonably small denominator . Sequence A002193 in the On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences consists of the digits in the decimal expansion of the square root of 2, here ...
This shows that any irrational number has irrationality measure at least 2. The Thue–Siegel–Roth theorem says that, for algebraic irrational numbers, the exponent of 2 in the corollary to Dirichlet’s approximation theorem is the best we can do: such numbers cannot be approximated by any exponent greater than 2.
The Pythagoreans are credited with the proof of the existence of irrational numbers. [1] [2] When the ratio of the lengths of two line segments is irrational, the line segments themselves (not just their lengths) are also described as being incommensurable.
The following famous example of a nonconstructive proof shows that there exist two irrational numbers a and b such that is a rational number. This proof uses that 2 {\displaystyle {\sqrt {2}}} is irrational (an easy proof is known since Euclid ), but not that 2 2 {\displaystyle {\sqrt {2}}^{\sqrt {2}}} is irrational (this is true, but the proof ...