Irrational Numbers

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How do we assign rational value to numbers like pi and infinity, numbers that mathematically have no rational ending, if our brains cannot rationalize these numbers? The concept alone is as irrational as the numbers…

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Pi is actually an irrational number!

In the mathematical sense “rational number” simply means “a number that you can express as the *ratio* of two integer numbers” (like 2/3, 1/100, etc.) while an “irrational number” is simply “a number that you cannot express as the *ratio* of two integer numbers”.

Once you understand the meanings of those definitions, you can see that “rational/irrational” has nothing to do with whether the number can be “rationalized” or “reasoned” with. In fact, a good many “irrational numbers” are “algebraic numbers” that represent the solutions to an equation like x*x-2=0 which produces the irrational algebraic number √2; these are numbers that we can very much work with in a logical manner, despite them being called “irrational”.

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