"There is good reason to doubt whether irrational numbers are numbers or not." Jacques Peletier du Mans, Algèbre, 1554 ("On irrational numbers in general").
This question, posed by the mathematician and poet Jacques Peletier du Mans, a member of the Pléiade alongside two of his contemporaries, the French poets Joachim du Bellay and Pierre de Ronsard, raises two distinct questions: what are "irrational numbers"? And what is a number? These questions exercised mathematicians for many years.
Jacques Peletier du Mans (1517–c. 1582).
Surds
-------------------
