Reading: 1.

2
A real number is called algebraic i it is a root of a non-zero polynomial equation a
n
x
n
+a
n1
x
n1
+
... +a
1
x +a
0
= 0 where a
0
, a
1
, ..., a
n
are all integers. A number that is not algebraic is called tran-
scendental.
If x solves the equation a
n
x
n
+ a
n1
x
n1
+ ... + a
1
x + a
0
and x =
p
q
then p|a
0
and q|a
n
. This is
called the rational roots theorem. If we want to show that some number is irrational we try to come
up with a polynomial equation for it having integer coecients and then show that none of the
possible rational roots solve the equation. That would imply that this number must be irrational.
Some numbers are not algebraic, those are called transcendental numbers. We proved in class by
using cardinality that transcendental numbers must exist and the set of all of them have the same
cardinality as the continuum. An example of such numbers are and e but the proof of this is
way beyond the scope of the class.
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