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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

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