原文开头
Irrational numbers have long underpinned quantum mechanics. Removing them could eliminate its weirdest features, discovers Karmela Padavic-Callaghan T HE exact story is contested, but in every version, it has a grim ending. A man discovers a new mathematical truth and loses his life for it. In every version of the narrative, the ancient Greek philosopher Hippasus of Metapontum drowns at sea, punished either by the gods or by his peers. His sin? In most tellings, it is discovering that there are numbers that can’t be expressed as an exact fraction, their decimal places running into oblivion without repeating. …
摘自《新科学家》(New Scientist)第271卷 第3610期 · 2026年8月29日。仅引用开头一小段供了解文章,版权归原刊所有,全文请阅读原刊。