Afloyd.197 net.math utzoo!decvax!duke!harpo!floyd!amicus Thu May 6 09:01:30 1982 An algebraic number is a number that is the root of a polynomial equation with integer coefficients. So rational numbers are a subset of algebraic numbers, since rational numbers are solutions of qx-p=0, where q and p are integers. The sine and cosine table in the back of your high school algebra book probably had entries for each angle in degrees from 0 to 45. Clearly, the numbers in the book are algebraic numbers, since they were something like .4723 (4723/10000). How many of these sine and cosine values are REALLY algebraic numbers? John Eldridge floyd!amicus ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.