Irrational Number Definition

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Irrational Number Definition Irrational Number Definition Numbers appear like dancing letters to many students as they are not able to distinguish between different categories of numbers and get confused in understanding their concepts. Number family has numerous of siblings and one of them is irrational and Rational Numbers. You can define rational number as a nameable number, as we can name it in the whole numbers, fractions and mixed numbers. On the other side irrational number is one that can’t be expressed in simple fraction form. With the help of real life examples you can easily distinguish between different types of numbers. In mathematics, an irrational number is any real number that cannot be expressed as a ratio a/b, where a and b are integers, with b non-zero, and is therefore not a rational number. Informally, this means that an irrational number cannot be represented as a simple fraction. Irrational numbers are those real numbers that cannot be represented as terminating or repeating decimals.

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As a consequence of Cantor's proof that the real numbers are uncountable (and the rationals countable) it follows that almost all real numbers are irrational. When the ratio of lengths of two line segments is irrational, the line segments are also described as being incommensurable, meaning they share no measure in common. Perhaps the best-known irrational numbers are: the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter π, Euler's number e, the golden ratio φ, and the square root of two √2. Greek mathematicians termed this ratio of incommensurable magnitudes alogos, or inexpressible. Hippasus, however, was not lauded for his efforts: according to one legend, he made his discovery while out at sea, and was subsequently thrown overboard by his fellow Pythagoreans “…for having produced an element in the universe which denied the…doctrine that all phenomena in the universe can be reduced to whole numbers and their ratios.” Another legend states that Hippasus was merely exiled for this revelation. Whatever the consequence to Hippasus himself, his discovery posed a very serious problem to Pythagorean mathematics, since it shattered the assumption that number and geometry were inseparable–a foundation of their theory. n our daily routine life we all are aware that numbers play an important role. In the routine life we use various types of numbers to make continue flow of our life. But we all are not assured that we know each and every number of the number system. In the number system of mathematics various types of numbers are defined which make the task easier to the human being. From that numbers here we are going to discuss about the irrational numbers. Rational and irrational numbers look like a fractional number. The basic difference between the rational and irrational numbers is that irrational numbers can’t be represented in the form of x / y, where y not be equal to zero.

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Here x is a numerator and y is a denominator. In the general term any integer or whole number can be represented into the form of rational numbers but there are some type of decimal integer values that can’t be represented into the rational form, these numbers are known as irrational numbers. If we focus on the History of Irrational Numbers then we find that the concept of irrational numbers was used at the time of 5th century in the Greek country. Greek is specially known as the inventor of number system. At that time they used only the positive numbers to count the sheep at their yard. When the time passed on they made the use of fractional numbers for equal distributing of food or other thing. In the other countries people do not use the negative numbers and irrational numbers to perform the task of calculation. Greeks are the first people who use the concept of irrational numbers. In the 7th century the concept of irrational numbers was implicitly accepted by the Indian mathematician. This happened when the problem of obtaining the value of square root of 2 arised. In the Greek century the concept of irrational number was used in the Pythagorean Theorem. In the Pythagorean Theorem we generally faced the problem of √2 at the pentagon side of the triangle. Irrational numbers can be considered as those numbers whose decimal values are represented in continues form of repeating numbers. Irrational numbers contain those numbers who don’t have any fix amount of numbers after decimal point (it means after decimal point, value are very big and contain infinite digits in it). Here we are going to discuss about some of the popular irrational numbers which are responsible for the invention of irrational numbers.

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