Tuesday, 16 April 2013

Irrational 'e'

In secondary school, we know how to prove √2 is irrational, how about e ?

e= 1 + 1/1!  +1/2!  + 1/3!  + 1/4!  +...

Prove by Reductio ad absurdum (contradiction):

Assume e= p/q as rational
multiply both sides by q!
LHS: e. q!= (p/q) .q! = p.(q-1)!  => integer

RHS:  q!+q! + (3.4...q)+ (4.5...q) +...1 + 1/(q+1) +.... => fraction

Contradiction !

Therefore e is irrational.

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