Prove that for any real numbers , , there exists a real number such that the numbers are all irrational.
Solution
Consider , irrational numbers such that is irrational for all . (One could take, for example,
, where is irrational.) We plan to prove that one of these irrational numbers can be chosen as .
Assume the contrary to be true, i.e. for each , at least one of the numbers is rational. But there are choices for , and only choices for such that is rational. By the Pigeon Principle, it follows that there must be an index and two irrational numbers such that and are both rational. But this would mean that their difference, , is also rational, which contradicts the choice of the numbers .
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