Mathematicians trace source of Rogers-Ramanujan identities, find algebraic gold

Re:Mathematicians trace source of Rogers-Ramanujan identitie... by carstimon on Tuesday April 29, 2014 @01:26PM (#7668544)

"Although no other algebraic units are as famous as the golden ratio, they are of central importance to algebra."

Arguably more famous algebraic numbers include: 0, 1, The square root of two, the square root of any integer, i, any integer, the nth root of any integer,...

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Re:Mathematicians trace source of Rogers-Ramanujan identitie... by jdpage on Tuesday April 29, 2014 @02:22PM (#7668963)

I realize that you were highlighting some specific, well-known examples, but I'm finding it pretty funny that you could have just said "the nth root of any integer", which encompasses all of the numbers and sets you mentioned before it. (I'm a maths student; it's finals; everything is hilarious now)

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Re:Mathematicians trace source of Rogers-Ramanujan identitie... by carstimon on Tuesday April 29, 2014 @05:18PM (#7670013)

Yeah, I guess those are the only ones I can think of that are more famous than the golden ratio :)

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Re:Mathematicians trace source of Rogers-Ramanujan identitie... by NAFV_P on Tuesday April 29, 2014 @02:51PM (#7669167)

An obscure algebraic number:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_number

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Re:Mathematicians trace source of Rogers-Ramanujan identitie... by tromp on Tuesday April 29, 2014 @02:21PM (#7668955)

I only agree with your first three examples (the third being debatable). Square or higher roots of arbitrary integers are definitely less famous than the golden ratio though...

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Re:Mathematicians trace source of Rogers-Ramanujan identitie... by NAFV_P on Tuesday April 29, 2014 @02:53PM (#7669176)

> Square or higher roots of arbitrary integers are definitely less famous than the golden ratio though...

Out of the list of algebraic numbers in question, zero is the most infamous.

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