irrational

(adjective)

of a real number, that cannot be written as the ratio of two integers

Related Terms

  • transcendental

Examples of irrational in the following topics:

  • Mannerism

    • Mannerist artists began to reject the harmony and ideal proportions of the Renaissance in favor of irrational settings, artificial colors, unclear subject matters, and elongated forms.
    • Younger artists trying to do something new and different began to reject harmony and ideal proportions in favor of irrational settings, artificial colors, unclear subject matters, and elongated forms.
    • In addition, the setting is irrational, almost as if it is not in this world, and the colors are far from naturalistic.
    • This work of art by Pontormo demonstrates the hallmarks of the Mannerist style: unclear subject matter, irrational setting, and artificial colors.
  • Research Examples

    • Berk (1974) uses game theory (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/game_Theory) to suggest that even a panic in a burning theater can reflect rational calculation: If members of the audience decide that it is more rational to run to the exits than to walk, the result may look like an animal-like stampede without in fact being irrational.
  • Fractions Involving Radicals

    • Root rationalization is a process by which any roots in the denominator of an irrational fraction are eliminated.
  • Zeroes of Polynomial Functions With Rational Coefficients

    • A real number that is not rational is called irrational.
    • The decimal expansion of an irrational number continues forever without repeating.
    • Since the set of rational numbers is countable, and the set of real numbers is uncountable, almost all real numbers are irrational.
  • Implications and Limitations of the Efficient Market Hypothesis

    • Speculative economic bubbles are an obvious anomaly, in that the market often appears to be driven by buyers operating on irrational exuberance, who take little notice of underlying value.
    • Rational investors have difficulty profiting by shorting irrational bubbles because, as John Maynard Keynes commented, "markets can remain irrational far longer than you or I can remain solvent. " Sudden market crashes, like the one that occurred on Black Monday in 1987, are mysterious from the perspective of efficient markets, but allowed as a rare statistical event under the Weak-form of EMH.
    • Despite this, Fama has conceded that "poorly informed investors could theoretically lead the market astray" and that stock prices could become "somewhat irrational" as a result.
  • Generalized Anxiety Disorder

    • Generalized anxiety disorder is characterized by chronic anxiety that is excessive, uncontrollable, and often irrational.
    • Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is characterized by chronic anxiety that is excessive, uncontrollable, often irrational, and disproportionate to the actual object of concern.
    • One of the main characteristics of GAD is excessive, constant, often irrational worry that impedes the individual's normal daily functioning.
  • Real Numbers, Functions, and Graphs

    • The real numbers include all the rational numbers, such as the integer -5 and the fraction $\displaystyle \frac{4}{3}$, and all the irrational numbers such as $\sqrt{2}$ (1.41421356… the square root of two, an irrational algebraic number) and $\pi$ (3.14159265…, a transcendental number).
  • Cognitive Biases

    • Perceptual distortions, such as cognitive bias, can result in poor judgement and irrational courses of action.
  • Natural Logarithms

    • The natural logarithm is the logarithm to the base e, where e is an irrational and transcendental constant approximately equal to 2.718281828.
  • Introduction to Rational Functions

    • However, the adjective "irrational" is not generally used for functions.
    • Note that the function itself is rational, even though the value of $f(x)$ is irrational for all $x$.
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