Re: Float numbers in module programming

[Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu]

On Thu, 30 Mar 2006 08:09:14 EST, "linux-os (Dick Johnson)" said:

> For instance __all__ real numbers, except for transcendentals, can
> be represented as a ratio of two integers. For instance, you can't
> represent 1/3 exactly as a decimal.

That's a "rational" number (or alternately, an algebraic number of order 1.
Irrational numbers result from algebraic expressions but aren't representable
as a ratio (for instance, the square root of 2, or the number phi - both of
these are algebraic numbers of order 2).   Trancendentals are numbers which
can't result from algebraic expressions with whole number coefficients (for
instance, pi and e).

All transcendentals are irrational, but not all irrationals are transcendental.

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/AlgebraicNumber.html
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/IrrationalNumber.html
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/TranscendentalNumber.html
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/GoldenRatio.html

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