Saturday, 5 January 2013

irrational numbers - Request help on proof of irrationality of sqrt8.



Prove that 8 is an irrational number.



As know that 2<8<3, so if assume (to attempt proof by contradiction) that 8=pq, where p,q are coprime integers; then 2<pq<3.



Attempt 1:
Subtracting 2 from all terms, get : 0<p2qq<1.




This means p2q is an integer with no common terms with q. Also q has no common terms with p.
But, p2q is a linear combination of p,q.



Am unable to use any property of linear combination of co-prime integers to directly prove by contradiction. Request help by this approach.



Attempt 2:
2<pq<32q<p<3q0<p2q<q. So, p2qq is not an integer value & must be <1.



As 8=pq is assumed to be a rational, so its product with p2q is also rational. But, this product cannot be an integer, as pq(p2q)=p.p2qq.



But pq(p2q)=p2q2p=8q2p which is a linear combination of integers. This contradicts the earlier statement.



Answer



Suppose 8=pq where gcd(p,q)=1.



then we can find integer x,y, such that px+qy=1



8q2=p2



Hence p is an even number, p=2k, 2q2=k2



Hence k must also be an even number. k=2l.




2q2=(2l)2



q2=2l2



Hence q must be an even number.



Since p and q are both even. px+qy must be even. They cannot be equal to 1.



Remark:




Once you lose track of the property of 8. Your proof shouldn't work. After all, we know that there are rational numbers between 2 and 3.


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