![Making sense of irrational numbers](https://hight3ch.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/making-sense-of-irrational-numbe.jpg)
Like many heroes of Greek myths, the philosopher Hippasus was rumored to have been mortally punished by the gods. But what was his crime? Did he murder guests or disrupt a sacred ritual? No, Hippasus’s transgression was mathematically proving the hitherto unprovable. Ganesh Pai describes the history and math behind irrational numbers.