.. title: Irrationality of √2
.. slug: irrationality-of-a2
.. date: 2014-05-31 12:10:13
.. tags: mathematics, history, irrational-numbers, pythagoras
.. description: A brief exploration of the history behind the discovery of the irrationality of √2.
.. categories: math, history
.. wp-status: publish

Came across this [interesting piece of Maths History](http://www.cut-the-knot.org/proofs/MorenoSqRt3.shtml).

The discovery of the irrationality of √2 is sometimes credited to Hippasus of
Metapontum (5th century BC), a Greek Pythagorean philosopher who was finally
drowned at sea as a punishment from his peers, the Pythagoreans, for divulging
the existence of the irrational numbers (the Pythagoreans advocate the idea that
all numbers SHOULD be the ratio of two integers).