Is `tan 1^o` a rational number?
Using the sum formula for tangent,
`tan (a +b) = (tan a + tan b)/(1- tan a tan b)`
we see that if `tan 1^o` is a rational number, then so is `tan 2^o`, and so is `tan n^o` for any integer `n`. But `tan 60^o = sqrt(3)`, which is irrational, a contradiction.
Hence `tan 1^o` is not rational!
1 comment:
Wow, this is neat!
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