Counting on Commensurability

Name _____________________________________

Quest for the Golden Ruler—Part 1

5 3
We know that a segment of length 6 feet can be measured as 10 inches, and a segment of length 4
meters can be measured as 75 centimeters. The Pythagoreans, a group of early mathematicians (ca. 550
B.C.), supposed that the counting numbers would always suffice for measurement if the ideal units could be
found, as in the above examples.

271
1. Suppose that you have a blank ruler and a line segment that is as long as your ruler. Also sup-
360
pose that to measure the segment, you divide your blank ruler into 360 equal units that you will call
“jarboos.”
271
a. How long is your line segment, as measured in jarboos? _______
5
b. Suppose that you have a second line segment that is as long as the ruler. How long is this sec-
6
ond segment if you measure it in jarboos? _______
5
2. Suppose that you have two different line segments, one as long as your ruler from step 1, and the
7
4
other as long as the ruler.
11
a. Why would it not be convenient for you to measure these two segments in jarboos?

b. What is the smallest number of equal units into which you would need to divide the ruler if you
wanted to measure both of these segments with whole numbers of units? ________
5893
3. Suppose that you have two other line segments, one of which is as long as the ruler, and the
3798
1379
other is as long as the ruler.
482
a. Could you divide the ruler into yet another set of units that would allow you to measure both of
these segments with whole numbers of those units? _________
b. How would you determine how many units your ruler would have?

You can measure the pairs of line segments in steps 2 and 3 in whole numbers of units as long as you
choose the right units. This result means that the line segments in each pair are commensurable. The
Pythagoreans believed that any two segments are commensurable.

Is this true? Part 2, “That’s Irrational,” continues the investigation.

Navigating through Measurement in Grades 9–12 Copyright © 2005 by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Inc.
www.nctm.org. All rights reserved.
 That’s Irrational
Name _____________________________________

Quest for the Golden Ruler—Part 2

Consider a right triangle with two congruent legs that are exactly equal to the length of a blank ruler.
Obviously, we could divide the ruler into any whole number of units we wanted, and the legs would be that
number of units in length. However, could we divide the ruler into a whole number of units so that the
hypotenuse would also be a whole number of those units?
In other words, is the hypotenuse of an isosceles right triangle commensurable with the leg? The
Pythagoreans thought it must be, if they could only find the right units.

1. Suppose that you divide a ruler into n units called “enths” and
make an isosceles right triangle with legs that are exactly equal
to your ruler.
a. How long is a leg of your triangle in enths? _______
b. What is the length of the hypotenuse as measured in enths?
(Use the Pythagorean theorem.) _________

2. Suppose that you can also measure the hypotenuse of your triangle in a whole number of enths—say,
m
m enths. Combine this supposition with your results in step 1 to show that 2! .
n

Here the Pythagoreans’ conjecture runs into trouble. If the leg and the hypotenuse of this simple triangle
m
really are commensurable, then there must be whole numbers m and n such that the ratio n can be
squared to equal 2. The Pythagoreans did not know of any such ratio—and for good reason. None exists, as
you will discover in the remaining steps of this exploration.

m
3. Assume that there really is a rational number n in lowest terms that satisfies the equation
2
! m"
# % ! 2. Show that this equation implies that m2 = 2n2.
$ n&

4. You can conclude from step 3 that m must be even and m2 must be a multiple of 4. Why?

5. If m2 is a multiple of 4, the equation m2 = 2n2 implies that n2 must be a multiple of 2 and n must be
even. Why?

Navigating through Measurement in Grades 9–12 Copyright © 2005 by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Inc.
www.nctm.org. All rights reserved.
 That’s Irrational (continued)
Name _____________________________________

m
6. However, you assumed that n is in lowest terms, and in step 4 you concluded that m must be even.
So n would have to be odd. Why?

7. Your conclusions in steps 5 and 6 are both logical results of your assumption in step 3.

a. Can both conclusions be true? _______

b. What, therefore, can you conclude about your assumption in step 3?