Friday, 11 September 2015

algebra precalculus - $sqrt{6}-sqrt{2}-sqrt{3}$ is irrational





Prove that $\sqrt{6}-\sqrt{2}-\sqrt{3}$ is irrational




My attempt:-
Suppose $\sqrt{6}-\sqrt{2}-\sqrt{3}$ is rational, then for some $x\in\mathbb{Q}$ we have $$\sqrt{6}-\sqrt{2}-\sqrt{3}=x$$
Rewriting this equation as $$\sqrt{6}-x=\sqrt{2}+\sqrt{3}$$
and now squaring this we get $$ 6-2x\sqrt{6}+x^2=5+2\sqrt{6}$$. This implies that $$\sqrt{6}=\frac{x^2-1}{2+2x}$$ but this is absurd as RHS of the above equation is rational but we know that $\sqrt6$ is irrational. Therefore , $\sqrt{6}-\sqrt{2}-\sqrt{3}$ is irrational. Does this look good? Have I written it properly? Is there any other proof besides this..like one using geometry? Thank you.


Answer




$\sqrt{6}-\sqrt{2}-\sqrt{3}$ is a root of $x^4 - 22 x^2 - 48 x - 23$.



By the rational root theorem, $\sqrt{6}-\sqrt{2}-\sqrt{3}$ is either irrational or an integer.



But
$$
1.4 < \sqrt 2 < 1.5
\\
1.7 < \sqrt 3 < 1.8
\\

2.4 < \sqrt 6 < 2.5
\\
$$

imply
$$
-0.9 < \sqrt{6}-\sqrt{2}-\sqrt{3} <-0.6
$$

and so $\sqrt{6}-\sqrt{2}-\sqrt{3}$ is not an integer. Therefore, it is irrational.


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