When my students grow too dependent on their calculators, I ask them to find a number that, when multiplied by itself, gives them 2. Students quickly see that since 1² = 1 and 2² = 4, the answer has ...

The importance of recognizing what's rational and what's not If someone was as rational as could be—with sound decisions and many accurate and trustworthy judgments about the world—would we recognize ...

In a previous post, we considered three of seven "irrational" habits of highly rational people. Here we consider the remaining four, as well as some suggestions for distinguishing the genuinely ...

Irrational numbers are numbers that cannot be expressed as the ratio of two whole numbers. This is opposed to rational numbers, like 2, 7, one-fifth and -13/9, which can be, and are, expressed as the ...

The New York Times has an updated Covid warning for its readers: “Right-wing influencers and conspiracy theorists are stoking fears about mass lockdowns and spreading unsubstantiated new ideas about ...

With bipartisan backing, successive congresses and presidential administrations have forced the health sector to disclose prices for services that were previously concealed from the public. With the ...