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Prove the following statement using a proof by contraposition. Yr EQ,s ER, if s is irrational, then r + 1 is irrational.

User Mehrdad
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1 Answer

3 votes

Answer:

I think that what you are trying to show is: If
s is irrational and
r is rational, then
r+s is rational. If so, a proof can be as follows:

Explanation:

Suppose that
r+s is a rational number. Then
r and
r+s can be written as follows


r=(p_(1))/(q_(1)), \,p_(1)\in \mathbb{Z}, q_(1)\in \mathbb{Z}, q_(1)\\eq 0


r+s=(p_(2))/(q_(2)), \,p_(2)\in \mathbb{Z}, q_(2)\in \mathbb{Z}, q_(2)\\eq 0

Hence we have that


r+s=(p_(1))/(q_(1))+s=(p_(2))/(q_(2))

Then


s=(p_(2))/(q_(2))-(p_(1))/(q_(1))=(p_(2)q_(1)-p_(1)q_(2))/(q_(1)q_(2))\in \mathbb{Q}

This is a contradiction because we assumed that
s is an irrational number.

Then
r+s must be an irrational number.

User Jason Dias
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