Proof that the square root of 2 is an irrational number
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Hello everyone. Today we will prove that \(\sqrt{2} \) is an irrational number. We will use the method of contradiction as a proof method. This proof was first given by the Greek philosopher Aristotle.
Theorem: \(\sqrt{2} \) is an irrational number.
Proof:
Suppose that \(\sqrt {2} \) is a rational number. Then \(\sqrt {2} \) can be written in the form \(\frac{p}{q} \) where \(p \) and \(q \) are coprime integers such that \(q \neq 0 \). Note that since \(\frac{p}{q} \) is an irreducible fraction \(p \) and \(q \) cannot be even at the same time, otherwise the fraction would not be irreducible.
From the equation \(\sqrt{2} = \frac{p}{q} \) it follows that \(2 = \frac{p^2}{q^2} \) or \(p^2 = 2q^2 \). So \(p^2 \) is an even number from which it follows that \(p \) is also an even number so we can write the number \(p \) in the form \(p = 2k \) , where \(k \) is an integer .
So, we have that \((2k)^2 = 2q^2 \) i.e. \(4k^2 = 2q^2 \), or \(q^2 = 2k^2 \). From the last equation we conclude that \(q^2 \) is an even number, so \(q \) is an even number too.
We have shown that \(p \) and \(q \) are even numbers, which contradicts the assumption that \(\frac{p}{q} \) is an irreducible fraction. Thus, the initial assumption that \(\sqrt{2} \) is a rational number is incorrect, which means that \(\sqrt{2} \) is an irrational number.
\(\blacksquare \)
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