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Is 2 A Rational Number

Is 2 A Rational Number

A rational number is a number that can be expressed as a fraction where and are integers and . A rational number is said to have numerator and denominator . Numbers that are not rational are called irrational numbers. The real line consists of the union of the rational and irrational numbers. The set of rational numbers is of measure zero on the real line, so it is "small" compared to the irrationals and the continuum.
The set of all rational numbers is referred to as the "rationals," and forms a field that is denoted . Here, the symbol derives from the German word Quotient, which can be translated as "ratio," and first appeared in Bourbaki's Algbre (reprinted as Bourbaki 1998, p. 671). Any rational number is trivially also an algebraic number. Examples of rational numbers include , 0, 1, 1/2, 22/7, 12345/67, and so on. Farey sequences provide a way of systematically enumerating all rational numbers. KnowMoreAboutVerifyingTrigonometricIdentities

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The set of rational numbers is denoted Rationals in Mathematica, and a number can be tested to see if it is rational using the command Element[x, Rationals]. The elementary algebraic operations for combining rational numbers are exactly the same as for combining fractions. It is always possible to find another rational number between any two members of the set of rationals. Therefore, rather counterintuitively, the rational numbers are a continuous set, but at the same time countable. In mathematics, a rational number is any number that can be expressed as the quotient or fraction a/b of two integers, with the denominator b not equal to zero. Since b may be equal to 1, every integer is a rational number. The set of all rational numbers is usually denoted by a boldface Q (or blackboard bold , Unicode ), which stands for quotient. The decimal expansion of a rational number always either terminates after a finite number of digits or begins to repeat the same finite sequence of digits over and over. Moreover, any repeating or terminating decimal represents a rational number. These statements hold true not just for base 10, but also for binary, hexadecimal, or any other integer base. A real number that is not rational is called irrational. Irrational numbers include 2, , and e. The decimal expansion of an irrational number continues forever without repeating. Since the set of rational numbers is countable, and the set of real numbers is uncountable, almost all real numbers are irrational. ReadMoreAboutRealNumbersDefinition

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The rational numbers can be formally defined as the equivalence classes of the quotient set (Z (Z {0})) / ~, where the cartesian product Z (Z {0}) is the set of all ordered pairs (m,n) where m and n are integers, n is not zero (n 0), and "~" is the equivalence relation defined by (m1,n1) ~ (m2,n2) if, and only if, m1n2 m2n1 = 0. In abstract algebra, the rational numbers together with certain operations of addition and multiplication form a field. This is the archetypical field of characteristic zero, and is the field of fractions for the ring of integers. Finite extensions of Q are called algebraic number fields, and the algebraic closure of Q is the field of algebraic numbers. In mathematical analysis, the rational numbers form a dense subset of the real numbers. The real numbers can be constructed from the rational numbers by completion, using Cauchy sequences, Dedekind cuts, or infinite decimals. The term rational in reference to the set Q refers to the fact that a rational number represents a ratio of two integers. In mathematics, the adjective rational often means that the underlying field considered is the field Q of rational numbers. Rational polynomial usually, and most correctly, means a polynomial with rational coefficients, also called a polynomial over the rationals. However, rational function does not mean the underlying field is the rational numbers, and a rational algebraic curve is not an algebraic curve with rational coefficients.

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