1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:00,490 2 00:00:00,490 --> 00:00:05,430 What number sets does the number 3.4028 3 00:00:05,430 --> 00:00:07,330 repeating belong to? 4 00:00:07,330 --> 00:00:09,150 And before even answering the question, let's just think 5 00:00:09,150 --> 00:00:10,690 about what this represents. 6 00:00:10,690 --> 00:00:13,000 And especially what this line on top means. 7 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:15,770 So this line on top means that the 28 just 8 00:00:15,770 --> 00:00:17,420 keep repeating forever. 9 00:00:17,420 --> 00:00:25,090 So I could express this number as 3.4028, but the 28 just 10 00:00:25,090 --> 00:00:26,110 keep repeating. 11 00:00:26,110 --> 00:00:29,740 Just keep repeating on and on and on forever. 12 00:00:29,740 --> 00:00:32,299 I could just keep writing them forever and ever. 13 00:00:32,299 --> 00:00:35,210 And obviously, it's just easier to write this line over 14 00:00:35,210 --> 00:00:37,620 the 28 to say that it repeats forever. 15 00:00:37,620 --> 00:00:41,290 Now let's think about what number sets it belongs to. 16 00:00:41,290 --> 00:00:44,600 Well, the broadest number set we've dealt with so far is the 17 00:00:44,600 --> 00:00:45,330 real numbers. 18 00:00:45,330 --> 00:00:48,420 And this definitely belongs to the real numbers. 19 00:00:48,420 --> 00:00:50,300 The real numbers is essentially the entire number 20 00:00:50,300 --> 00:00:51,990 line that we're used to using. 21 00:00:51,990 --> 00:00:55,660 And 3.4028 repeating sits someplace over here. 22 00:00:55,660 --> 00:01:01,340 If this is negative 1, this is 0, 1, 2, 3, 4. 23 00:01:01,340 --> 00:01:04,730 3.4028 is a little bit more than 3.4, a little 24 00:01:04,730 --> 00:01:06,490 bit less than 3.41. 25 00:01:06,490 --> 00:01:07,760 It would sit right over there. 26 00:01:07,760 --> 00:01:09,450 So it definitely sits on the number line. 27 00:01:09,450 --> 00:01:11,090 It's a real number. 28 00:01:11,090 --> 00:01:13,870 So it definitely is real. 29 00:01:13,870 --> 00:01:16,370 It definitely is a real number. 30 00:01:16,370 --> 00:01:19,080 But the not so obvious question is whether it is a 31 00:01:19,080 --> 00:01:20,180 rational number. 32 00:01:20,180 --> 00:01:25,040 Remember, a rational number is one that can be expressed as a 33 00:01:25,040 --> 00:01:26,890 rational expression or as a fraction. 34 00:01:26,890 --> 00:01:34,390 If I were to tell you that p is rational, that means that p 35 00:01:34,390 --> 00:01:37,840 can be expressed as the ratio of two integers. 36 00:01:37,840 --> 00:01:45,620 That means that p can be expressed as the ratio of two 37 00:01:45,620 --> 00:01:47,900 integers, m/n. 38 00:01:47,900 --> 00:01:50,960 So the question is, can I express this as the ratio of 39 00:01:50,960 --> 00:01:51,410 two integers? 40 00:01:51,410 --> 00:01:52,410 Or another way to think of it, can I 41 00:01:52,410 --> 00:01:53,990 express this as a fraction? 42 00:01:53,990 --> 00:01:58,510 And to do that, let's actually express it as a fraction. 43 00:01:58,510 --> 00:02:01,310 Let's define x as being equal to this number. 44 00:02:01,310 --> 00:02:09,960 So x is equal to 3.4028 repeating. 45 00:02:09,960 --> 00:02:12,650 Let's think about what 10,000x is. 46 00:02:12,650 --> 00:02:14,470 And the only reason why I want 10,000x is because I want to 47 00:02:14,470 --> 00:02:16,960 move the decimal point all the way to the right over here. 48 00:02:16,960 --> 00:02:21,710 So 10,000x. 49 00:02:21,710 --> 00:02:23,380 What is that going to be equal to? 50 00:02:23,380 --> 00:02:26,350 Well every time you multiply by a power of 10, you shift 51 00:02:26,350 --> 00:02:27,420 the decimal one to the right. 52 00:02:27,420 --> 00:02:29,790 10,000 is 10 to the fourth power. 53 00:02:29,790 --> 00:02:31,780 So it's like shifting the decimal over to 54 00:02:31,780 --> 00:02:32,830 the right four spaces. 55 00:02:32,830 --> 00:02:36,400 1, 2, 3, 4. 56 00:02:36,400 --> 00:02:40,575 So it'll be 34,028. 57 00:02:40,575 --> 00:02:42,700 But these 28's just keep repeating. 58 00:02:42,700 --> 00:02:45,820 So you'll still have the 28's go on and on, and on and on, 59 00:02:45,820 --> 00:02:46,720 and on after that. 60 00:02:46,720 --> 00:02:49,550 They just all got shifted to the left of the decimal point 61 00:02:49,550 --> 00:02:50,430 by five spaces. 62 00:02:50,430 --> 00:02:51,070 You can view it that way. 63 00:02:51,070 --> 00:02:53,140 That makes sense. 64 00:02:53,140 --> 00:02:54,670 It's nearly 3 and 1/2. 65 00:02:54,670 --> 00:02:57,810 If you multiply by 10,000, you get almost 35,000. 66 00:02:57,810 --> 00:02:59,490 So that's 10,000x. 67 00:02:59,490 --> 00:03:00,970 Now, let's also think about 100x. 68 00:03:00,970 --> 00:03:04,340 And my whole exercise here is I want to get two numbers 69 00:03:04,340 --> 00:03:06,590 that, when I subtract them and they're in terms of x, the 70 00:03:06,590 --> 00:03:08,130 repeating part disappears. 71 00:03:08,130 --> 00:03:10,970 And then we can just treat them as traditional numbers. 72 00:03:10,970 --> 00:03:13,260 So let's think about what 100x is. 73 00:03:13,260 --> 00:03:15,530 100x. 74 00:03:15,530 --> 00:03:17,010 That moves this decimal point. 75 00:03:17,010 --> 00:03:18,370 Remember, the decimal point was here originally. 76 00:03:18,370 --> 00:03:20,860 It moves it over to the right two spaces. 77 00:03:20,860 --> 00:03:24,830 So 100x would be 300-- Let me write it like this. 78 00:03:24,830 --> 00:03:30,750 It would be 340.28 repeating. 79 00:03:30,750 --> 00:03:32,220 We could have put the 28 repeating here, but it 80 00:03:32,220 --> 00:03:33,010 wouldn't have made as much sense. 81 00:03:33,010 --> 00:03:34,670 You always want to write it after the decimal point. 82 00:03:34,670 --> 00:03:37,340 So we have to write 28 again to show that it is repeating. 83 00:03:37,340 --> 00:03:39,710 Now something interesting is going on. 84 00:03:39,710 --> 00:03:42,400 These two numbers, they're just multiples of x. 85 00:03:42,400 --> 00:03:45,790 And if I subtract the bottom one from the top one, what's 86 00:03:45,790 --> 00:03:46,710 going to happen? 87 00:03:46,710 --> 00:03:48,530 Well the repeating part is going to disappear. 88 00:03:48,530 --> 00:03:49,170 So let's do that. 89 00:03:49,170 --> 00:03:52,280 Let's do that on both sides of this equation. 90 00:03:52,280 --> 00:03:53,230 Let's do it. 91 00:03:53,230 --> 00:03:58,210 So on the left-hand side of this equation, 10,000x minus 92 00:03:58,210 --> 00:04:03,620 100x is going to be 9,900x. 93 00:04:03,620 --> 00:04:06,960 And on the right-hand side, let's see-- The decimal part 94 00:04:06,960 --> 00:04:08,230 will cancel out. 95 00:04:08,230 --> 00:04:12,030 And we just have to figure out what 34,028 minus 340 is. 96 00:04:12,030 --> 00:04:14,120 So let's just figure this out. 97 00:04:14,120 --> 00:04:16,010 8 is larger than 0, so we won't have to do any 98 00:04:16,010 --> 00:04:16,649 regrouping there. 99 00:04:16,649 --> 00:04:19,769 2 is less than 4. 100 00:04:19,769 --> 00:04:22,200 So we will have to do some regrouping, but we can't 101 00:04:22,200 --> 00:04:25,510 borrow yet because we have a 0 over there. 102 00:04:25,510 --> 00:04:27,710 And 0 is less than 3, so we have to do some regrouping 103 00:04:27,710 --> 00:04:29,000 there or some borrowing. 104 00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:31,770 So let's borrow from the 4 first. 105 00:04:31,770 --> 00:04:36,590 So if we borrow from the 4, this becomes a 3 and then this 106 00:04:36,590 --> 00:04:38,140 becomes a 10. 107 00:04:38,140 --> 00:04:40,460 And then the 2 can now borrow from the 10. 108 00:04:40,460 --> 00:04:44,090 This becomes a 9 and this becomes a 12. 109 00:04:44,090 --> 00:04:45,820 And now we can do the subtraction. 110 00:04:45,820 --> 00:04:48,390 8 minus 0 is 8. 111 00:04:48,390 --> 00:04:51,110 12 minus 4 is 8. 112 00:04:51,110 --> 00:04:53,880 9 minus 3 is 6. 113 00:04:53,880 --> 00:04:55,920 3 minus nothing is 3. 114 00:04:55,920 --> 00:04:57,950 3 minus nothing is 3. 115 00:04:57,950 --> 00:05:05,320 So 9,900x is equal to 33,688. 116 00:05:05,320 --> 00:05:09,180 We just subtracted 340 from this up here. 117 00:05:09,180 --> 00:05:13,110 So we get 33,688. 118 00:05:13,110 --> 00:05:15,710 Now, if we want to solve for x, we just divide 119 00:05:15,710 --> 00:05:21,610 both sides by 9,900. 120 00:05:21,610 --> 00:05:23,990 Divide the left by 9,900. 121 00:05:23,990 --> 00:05:26,900 Divide the right by 9,900. 122 00:05:26,900 --> 00:05:28,000 And then, what are we left with? 123 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:36,850 We're left with x is equal to 33,688 over 9,900. 124 00:05:36,850 --> 00:05:38,550 Now what's the big deal about this? 125 00:05:38,550 --> 00:05:41,900 Well, x was this number. x was this number that we started 126 00:05:41,900 --> 00:05:44,580 off with, this number that just kept on repeating. 127 00:05:44,580 --> 00:05:47,500 And by doing a little bit of algebraic manipulation and 128 00:05:47,500 --> 00:05:49,660 subtracting one multiple of it from another, we're able to 129 00:05:49,660 --> 00:05:52,530 express that same exact x as a fraction. 130 00:05:52,530 --> 00:05:55,780 Now this isn't in simplest terms. I mean they're both 131 00:05:55,780 --> 00:05:58,900 definitely divisible by 2 and it looks like by 4. 132 00:05:58,900 --> 00:06:01,960 So you could put this in lowest common form, but we 133 00:06:01,960 --> 00:06:02,910 don't care about that. 134 00:06:02,910 --> 00:06:05,055 All we care about is the fact that we were able to represent 135 00:06:05,055 --> 00:06:09,050 x, we were able to represent this number, as a fraction. 136 00:06:09,050 --> 00:06:11,620 As the ratio of two integers. 137 00:06:11,620 --> 00:06:14,720 So the number is also rational. 138 00:06:14,720 --> 00:06:16,550 It is also rational. 139 00:06:16,550 --> 00:06:19,010 And this technique we did, it doesn't only 140 00:06:19,010 --> 00:06:20,700 apply to this number. 141 00:06:20,700 --> 00:06:24,370 Any time you have a number that has repeating digits, you 142 00:06:24,370 --> 00:06:25,000 could do this. 143 00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:27,530 So in general, repeating digits are rational. 144 00:06:27,530 --> 00:06:30,090 The ones that are irrational are the ones that never, ever, 145 00:06:30,090 --> 00:06:32,860 ever repeat, like pi. 146 00:06:32,860 --> 00:06:34,590 And so the other things, I think it's pretty obvious, 147 00:06:34,590 --> 00:06:35,810 this isn't an integer. 148 00:06:35,810 --> 00:06:37,410 The integers are the whole numbers that 149 00:06:37,410 --> 00:06:38,020 we're dealing with. 150 00:06:38,020 --> 00:06:40,390 So this is someplace in between the integers. 151 00:06:40,390 --> 00:06:43,360 It's not a natural number or a whole number, which depending 152 00:06:43,360 --> 00:06:46,240 on the context are viewed as subsets of integers. 153 00:06:46,240 --> 00:06:47,360 So it's definitely none of those. 154 00:06:47,360 --> 00:06:49,110 So it is real and it is rational. 155 00:06:49,110 --> 00:06:51,460 That's all we can say about it.