Number Theory – Why Is Epsilon Not a Rational Number?

rational numberssurreal-numbers

I was wondering why epsilon, the smallest positive number, isn't a rational number. I was watching a video a few days ago about surreal numbers, and I've learned that, in the field of surreal numbers, o.(9) is not equal to 1, in contrast to the field of the real numbers, where they represent the same number. In the field of surreal numbers, you would get epsilon by subtracting 0,(9) from 1. If you were to do this in the rationals, you would just get 0. But I think there is a method do get epsilon even in the rationals, you would just take the following limit:

$$\lim\limits_{n \to\infty} \sum_{i=0}^n {1\over 10^i}$$
Am I making a wrong mathematical assumption or…? Is there a reason for which epsilon couldn't be a rational number?

Best Answer

See Surreal number :

Consider the smallest positive number in $S_ω$:

$\varepsilon =\{S_{-}\cup S_{0}|S_{+}\}=\{0|1,{\tfrac {1}{2}},{\tfrac {1}{4}},{\tfrac {1}{8}},...\}=\{0|y\in S_{*}:y>0\}$.

This number is larger than zero but less than all positive dyadic fractions. It is therefore an infinitesimal number, often labeled $ε$.

Thus epsilon is, "by definition" less than (and so different from) all rational in the $(0,1)$ interval.

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