Katie has a PhD in maths, specializing in the intersection of dynamical systems and number theory. She reports on topics from maths and history to society and animals. Katie has a PhD in maths, ...

When my students grow too dependent on their calculators, I ask them to find a number that, when multiplied by itself, gives them 2. Students quickly see that since 1² = 1 and 2² = 4, the answer has ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Irrational numbers such as pi or the square root of 2 have always fascinated humankind. After all, they symbolize infinity better ...

Why do irrational numbers exist? originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. Answer by Alon Amit, PhD ...

The ancient scholar Hippasus of Metapontum was punished with death for his discovery of irrational numbers—or at least that’s the legend. What actually happened in the fifth century B.C.E. is far from ...

Irrational numbers such as pi or the square root of 2 have always fascinated humankind. After all, they symbolize infinity better than anything else: their sequence of digits after the decimal point ...