Skip to Content
Good Math
book

Good Math

by Mark C. Chu-Carroll
July 2013
Intermediate to advanced
282 pages
6h 28m
English
Pragmatic Bookshelf
Content preview from Good Math

What Are Irrational Numbers?

Let’s start with the irrational numbers. These are numbers that aren’t integers and also aren’t a ratio of any two integers. You can’t write them as a normal fraction. If you write them as a continued fraction (which we’ll describe in 11, Continued Fractions), then they go on forever. If you write them in decimal form, they go on forever without repeating. They’re called irrational because they can’t be written as ratios. Many people have claimed that they’re irrational because they don’t make sense, but that’s just a rationalization after the fact.

They do make sense, but they are uncomfortable and ugly to many mathematicians. The existence of irrational numbers means that there are numbers that you cannot write ...

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.

Read now

Unlock full access

More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly

AirBnbBlueOriginElectronic ArtsHomeDepotNasdaqRakutenTata Consultancy Services

QuotationMarkO’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.
Julian F.
Head of Cybersecurity
QuotationMarkI wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.
Addison B.
Field Engineer
QuotationMarkI’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.
Amir M.
Data Platform Tech Lead
QuotationMarkI'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
Mark W.
Embedded Software Engineer

You might also like

Simply Math

Simply Math

DK
Practical Discrete Mathematics

Practical Discrete Mathematics

Ryan T. White, Archana Tikayat Ray
Linear Algebra, 5th Edition

Linear Algebra, 5th Edition

Stephen H. Friedberg, Arnold J. Insel, Lawrence E. Spence

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9781941222546Errata