Attempt to view irrational number as a fraction I am wondering if an irrational number can be represented as a fraction in this way: For example (to represent pi): pi= 3.14159265359...=(314159265359...)/(100000000000...) In the fraction (314159265359...)/(100000000000...), the numerator is an integer whose digits have the same order as digits of pi , and the denominator is simply 10^((of digits of numerator-1)). Isn't an irrational number represented as a fraction in this way? Probably I misunderstand the concept of the irrational number. Thanks in advance.

Alvin Parks

Alvin Parks

Answered question

2022-11-02

Attempt to view irrational number as a fraction
I am wondering if an irrational number can be represented as a fraction in this way:
For example (to represent π):
π = 3.14159265359... = 314159265359... 100000000000...
In the fraction 314159265359... 100000000000... , the numerator is an integer whose digits have the same order as digits of π, and the denominator is simply 10 ( # o f d i g i t s o f n u m e r a t o r 1 ) . Isn't an irrational number represented as a fraction in this way? Probably I misunderstand the concept of the irrational number. Thanks in advance.

Answer & Explanation

ebizsavvy1txn

ebizsavvy1txn

Beginner2022-11-03Added 14 answers

If the numerator and denominator contains a finite number of digits each (and both are integers), then it's a rational number, but it won't equal π. If they have infinitely many digits, then I don't know what the expression even means, but even if one could make sense of it, and the value would be π, the numerator and denominator wouldn't be integers, and thus you wouldn't have a rational number, at least not a priori.
Uriah Molina

Uriah Molina

Beginner2022-11-04Added 7 answers

An irrational number is a number that can't be represented as a ratio (i.e., a fraction) of two integers.
Since the digits of pi go on forever, your numerator is an infinite sequence of digits. That isn't an integer; only a finite sequence of digits defines an integer.
Additionally, it's hard to know what your fraction means. You say the denominator is 10 # of digits of numerator 1 , but the number of digits in the numerator is infinite, so is your denominator 10 1 ? That isn't well-defined; it certainly isn't an integer.

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