How can we use irrational numbers in math if we don’t know the full number?
In: 232
You don’t need to. The resulting number may be infinitely long and chaotic, but nobody needs to see all the digits. Whatever you’re measuring, the tool has some kind of limit and at some point you might as well stop in your calculations. For most people, the diameter of a circle (which involves the irrational number pi) to 0.01 microns is probably more than enough detail.
Also, it’s very common to leave the number in symbolic form until such time as you actually need a decimal number. The square root of 2 is irrational, but while you’re doing your math, you just leave it as `sqrt(2)` as if this were some unknown variable like `x`. When you’re done and you’ve made the final formula as simple as you can, you can actually substitute in `1.41421356237309504880`, or stop at however many decimal places make sense, for your final numeric answer.
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