Home > Prealgebra > Rational and Irrational Numbers

Is -5 a irrational number?

Answer 1

Noah Archer

No, #-5# is an integer.

There are various number types (natural, whole, integer, rational, real and irrational).

Natural numbers are "counting numbers" like #1, 2, 3, 4#.

Whole/counting are like natural numbers, except that they start from #0#.

Integers are all the whole numbers - positive, negative numbers and 0, but not fractions or decimals.

(https://tutor.hix.ai),

Rational numbers can be written as #a/b, b !=0# #-5 " can be written as " (-10)/2, "so it is rational"# Rational numbers include all the integers, all the vulgar fractions, all the terminating decimals (ones that end, like #0.85#, and all the recurring decimals, unlike #pi#).

Irrational numbers are infinite decimals which do not recur like #pi#, #sqrt2# or #sqrt20#

Non-real/Imaginary numbers do not exist on the numberline, Numbers like #sqrt(-50), sqrt(-16), 4i#.

#-5# in an integer and is not irrational.

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Answer 2

Gianna Caruso

No, -5 is not an irrational number. It is a rational number because it can be expressed as a quotient of two integers (-5/1).

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Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.