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In mathematics, "rational" is often used as a noun abbreviating "rational number". The adjective rational sometimes means that the coefficients are rational numbers. For example, a rational point is a point with rational coordinates (i.e., a point whose coordinates are rational numbers); a rational matrix is a matrix of rational numbers; a rational polynomial may be a polynomial with rational ...
Such a number is algebraic and can be expressed as the sum of a rational number and the square root of a rational number. Constructible number: A number representing a length that can be constructed using a compass and straightedge. Constructible numbers form a subfield of the field of algebraic numbers, and include the quadratic surds.
In radians, one would require that 0° ≤ x ≤ π/2, that x/π be rational, and that sin(x) be rational. The conclusion is then that the only such values are sin(0) = 0, sin(π/6) = 1/2, and sin(π/2) = 1. The theorem appears as Corollary 3.12 in Niven's book on irrational numbers. [2] The theorem extends to the other trigonometric functions ...
An algebraic number is a number that is a root of a non-zero polynomial in one variable with integer (or, equivalently, rational) coefficients. For example, the golden ratio , ( 1 + 5 ) / 2 {\displaystyle (1+{\sqrt {5}})/2} , is an algebraic number, because it is a root of the polynomial x 2 − x − 1 .
This category represents all rational numbers, that is, those real numbers which can be represented in the form: ...where and are integers and is ...
Not all number systems can represent the same set of numbers; for example, Roman numerals cannot represent the number zero. Ideally, a numeral system will: Represent a useful set of numbers (e.g. all integers, or rational numbers) Give every number represented a unique representation (or at least a standard representation)
The set of rational numbers is not complete. For example, the sequence (1; 1.4; 1.41; 1.414; 1.4142; 1.41421; ...), where each term adds a digit of the decimal expansion of the positive square root of 2, is Cauchy but it does not converge to a rational number (in the real numbers, in contrast, it converges to the positive square root of 2).
Algebraic number theory is a branch of number theory that uses the techniques of abstract algebra to study the integers, rational numbers, and their generalizations. Number-theoretic questions are expressed in terms of properties of algebraic objects such as algebraic number fields and their rings of integers , finite fields , and function fields .