this post was submitted on 30 Dec 2024
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If only some side lengths are irrational, then, by definition, there is no ratio of whole numbers that describes those lengths relative to each other - therefore, you can't divide them out to be whole. Unless all side lengths are irrational and also share the same irrational multiplier (like root(2) in your example).
Yeah I think I was overcomplicating it in my head, I kept getting caught in the hows and whys of squaring everything in Pythagoras' theorem, that maybe it could get around the problems of some being irrational and some not.
Ultimately I think you're right that the scaling itself is the problem: scaling irrational numbers to be whole numbers generally won't work outside of those specific cases.
Also, not all irrational numbers can even be squared into rationals