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Making sense of irrational numbers - Ganesh Pai

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Like many heroes of Greek myths, the philosopher Hippasus was rumored to have been mortally punished by the gods. But what was his crime? Did he murder guests or disrupt a sacred ritual? No, Hippasus's transgression was mathematically proving the hitherto unprovable. Ganesh Pai describes the history and math behind irrational numbers.

The diagonal of a square with sides equal to 1 unit is irrational. Are the diagonals of all squares irrational?

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Meet The Creators

  • Educator Ganesh Pai
  • Script Editor Alex Gendler
  • Director Anton Trofimov
  • Artist Shixie
  • Narrator Pen-Pen Chen

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