Are m n \sqrt{m}-\sqrt{n} Dense In R \mathbb{R} ?

Calculus Level 1

Consider the set S : = { m n : m , n N } . S:= \big\{\sqrt{m}-\sqrt{n}\, : \, m, n \in \mathbb{N}\big\}. Is S S dense in R \mathbb{R} ?

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2 solutions

Otto Bretscher
Mar 23, 2016

Consider an interval ( a , b ) (a,b) and assume, without loss of generality, that a > 0 a>0 . There exists a positive integer p p such that d = p + 1 p = 1 p + 1 + p < b a d=\sqrt{p+1}-\sqrt{p}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{p+1}+\sqrt{p}}<b-a . Now there exists a positive integer q q such that q d = q 2 ( p + 1 ) q 2 p qd=\sqrt{q^2(p+1)}-\sqrt{q^2p} is on ( a , b ) (a,b) , as required.

Luca Di Fazio
Oct 29, 2020

This is equivalent to construct, for every a 0 a\ge 0 , a sequence ( m k , n k ) (m_k,n_k) such that m k n k a \sqrt{m_k}-\sqrt{n_k} \to a . To make it easier, let's look for sequences with m k = k m_k = k . We guess that for every k k , we can choose n k n_k to be the largest integer n n for which a k n a \le \sqrt{k}-\sqrt{n} , that is, n k = n_k = integer part of ( k a ) 2 (\sqrt{k}-a)^2 . But this is not difficult to prove.

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