When I ask my calculator for a decimal value of √2, it displays 1.414213562. What is the meaning of this number? To check whether this square root is correct, what needs to be done? Can the square root of 2 be expressed as a ratio of whole numbers such as 17 ? 12
\(\sqrt{2}\) absolutely can not be written in the form \(\frac{p}{q}\) , the value you have given is a approximate value of \(\sqrt{2}\) . The problem may want to tell you any irrational number can be approximately represented by a rational number.
