Prove that
is irrational.
Answers
Answer:
- I don't know sorry...
- I hope you understand
Step-by-step explanation:
we will prove this by contradiction. Suppose that there exists a rational number r=ab such that r2=3. Let r be in lowest terms, that is the greatest common divisor of a and b is 1, or rather gcd(a,b)=1. And so:
(1)
r2=3a2b2=3 a2=3b2
We have two cases to consider now. Suppose that b is even. Then b2 is even, and 3b2 is even which implies that a2 is even and so a is even, but this cannot happen. If both a and b are even then gcd(a,b)≥2 which is a contradiction.
Now suppose that b is odd. Then b2 is odd and 3b2 is odd which implies that a2 is odd and so a is odd. Since both a and b are odd, we can write a=2m−1 and b=2n−1 for some m,n∈N. Therefore:
(2)
a2=3b2(2m−1)2=3(2n−1)24m2−4m+1=3(4n2−4n+1)4m2−4m+1=12n2−12n+34m2−4m=12n2−12n+22m2−2m=6n2−6n+12(m2−m)=2(3n2−3n)+1
We note that the lefthand side of this equation is even, while the righthand side of this equation is odd, which is a contradiction. Therefore there exists no rational number r such that r2=3