Hi, this was based on a thought I had: How could the square of a 'proper' rational (i.e. a rational that when in lowest terms, has a denominator other than 1) be an integer? So let \( \sqrt{n}=\frac{r}{s}\) be the square root of a positive integer \(n\). W.l.o.g. \[ \frac{r}{s} \] is in lowest terms.
By squaring we get \[r^2 =ns^2\].
Then there exist integers \[u\,v \] such that \[ ru +sv=1 \]
Multiplying the preceding equation by \(r\) we get
Thus is a divisor of , and in particular of 1.
So we are left with LaTeX:
Hence LaTeX:
i.e. is a perfect square.
Therefore if is not a perfect square, then LaTeX: is irrational.
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