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Internet Message Format  |  1992-10-07  |  951 b 
  1. Path: sparky!uunet!haven.umd.edu!darwin.sura.net!ra!AIC.NRL.Navy.Mil!hoey
  2. From: hoey@AIC.NRL.Navy.Mil (Dan Hoey)
  3. Newsgroups: sci.math
  4. Subject: Re: Irrational?
  5. Message-ID: <9210071709.hoey@aic.nrl.navy.mil>
  6. Date: 7 Oct 92 21:09:12 GMT
  7. References: <1992Sep30.214743.18350@cs.rose-hulman.edu> <92279.214016RVESTERM@vma.cc.nd.edu> <1992Oct6.162043.5000@Princeton.EDU>
  8. Sender: usenet@ra.nrl.navy.mil
  9. Organization: Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC
  10. Lines: 11
  11.  
  12. The dictionary (I peeked) says that the Latin word _ratio_ means
  13. reason, computation, or reasoning, from which we get the words ratio
  14. and reason.  I believe that long division was a canonical example of
  15. computation, from which come the words having to do with division, and
  16. the rest of the words deal with thought process
  17.  
  18. So irrational numbers are numbers you can't get by dividing integers,
  19. while irrational people are the ones who can't do the division.
  20.  
  21. Dan Hoey
  22. Hoey@AIC.NRL.Navy.Mil
  23.