Most people rarely deal with irrational numbers—it would be, well, irrational, as they run on forever, and representing them accurately requires an infinite amount of space. But irrational constants ...

When my students grow too dependent on their calculators, I ask them to find a number that, when multiplied by itself, gives them 2. Students quickly see that since 1² = 1 and 2² = 4, the answer has ...

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American The more I learn about continued fractions, ...

The oldest mathematics journal in the Western Hemisphere in continuous publication, the American Journal of Mathematics ranks as one of the most respected and celebrated journals in its field.

Irrational numbers are numbers that cannot be expressed as the ratio of two whole numbers. This is opposed to rational numbers, like 2, 7, one-fifth and -13/9, which can be, and are, expressed as the ...

“Do you see the pattern? Each number in the series after the first two numbers is the sum of the preceding two numbers.” That’s how I began my last column focusing on the Fibonacci sequence, which ...

Originally defined as the ratio between the circumference of a circle and its diameter, pi — written as the Greek letter π — appears throughout mathematics, including in areas that are completely ...

Imagine being asked to pick a number from 1 to 10. You are quite likely to pick a whole number; I have never seen someone do otherwise. But you could also pick the number pi, whose decimal expansion ...

Math fans, celebrate. Today is Pi Day, a holiday that celebrates the world’s most famous irrational number. What are irrational numbers, you ask? As Penn State Berks professor Joni Queen describes ...