Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Technically, it should be called the principal square root of 2, to distinguish it from the negative number with the same property. Geometrically, the square root of 2 is the length of a diagonal across a square with sides of one unit of length; this follows from the Pythagorean theorem. It was probably the first number known to be irrational. [1]
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 ...
Hippasus is sometimes credited with the discovery of the existence of irrational numbers, following which he was drowned at sea. Pythagoreans preached that all numbers could be expressed as the ratio of integers, and the discovery of irrational numbers is said to have shocked them. However, the evidence linking the discovery to Hippasus is unclear.
In mathematics, a proof by infinite descent, also known as Fermat's method of descent, is a particular kind of proof by contradiction [1] used to show that a statement cannot possibly hold for any number, by showing that if the statement were to hold for a number, then the same would be true for a smaller number, leading to an infinite descent and ultimately a contradiction. [2]
The square root of the Gelfond–Schneider constant is the transcendental number = 1.632 526 919 438 152 844 77.... This same constant can be used to prove that "an irrational elevated to an irrational power may be rational", even without first proving its transcendence.
The classic proof that the square root of 2 is irrational is a refutation by contradiction. [11] Indeed, we set out to prove the negation ¬ ∃ a, b ∈ . a/b = √ 2 by assuming that there exist natural numbers a and b whose ratio is the square root of two, and derive a contradiction.
A more general proof shows that the mth root of an integer N is irrational, unless N is the mth power of an integer n. [7] That is, it is impossible to express the mth root of an integer N as the ratio a ⁄ b of two integers a and b, that share no common prime factor, except in cases in which b = 1.
The square root of 2 is irrational, and 3 is rational. is also irrational: if it were equal to , then, by the properties of logarithms, 9 n would be equal to 2 m, but the former is odd, and the latter is even. A more substantial example is the graph minor theorem.