Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links (Mar 17)
Erik Max Francis
max at alcyone.com
Thu Mar 20 18:58:02 EST 2003
Michael Hudson wrote:
> Well, I guess. But rationality seems a much more tractable notion
> than normality -- it seems "finite" in some sense. I'm not sure
> rationality is that good an example, as having irrationals is somehow
> the point of the reals... Transcendence would be a better example,
> but I'm an algebraist -- what's a transcendent number, again? <wink>.
Real numbers are divided into two types: algebraic and transcendental.
Algebraic numbers are those which are the root of any polynomial
equation with integral coefficients; transcendental numbers are those
which cannot. The square root of two is algebraic, for instance, but e
and pi are transcendental. All rational numbers are algebraic, and all
transcendental numbers are irrational, but not all irrational numbers
are transcendental.
--
Erik Max Francis / max at alcyone.com / http://www.alcyone.com/max/
__ San Jose, CA, USA / 37 20 N 121 53 W / &tSftDotIotE
/ \ Morality is a weakness of the mind.
\__/ Arthur Rimbaud
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