Predictably Irrational Predictably Irrational Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions is a 2008 book by Dan Ariely, in which he challenges readers' assumptions about making decisions based on rational thought. Ariely explains, "My goal, by the end of this book, is to help you fundamentally rethink what makes you and the people around you tick. I hope to lead you there by presenting a wide range of scientific experiments, findings, and anecdotes that are in many cases quite amusing. Once you see how systematic certain mistakes are—how we repeat them again and again—I think you will begin to learn
Proof that e is irrational between 2 and 3: We then analyze a blown-up difference "x" of the series representing "e" and its strictly smaller partial sum, which approximates the limiting value "e". By choosing the magnifying factor to be the factorial of "b", the fraction ⁄ and the partial sum are turned into integers, hence "x" must be a positive integer. However, the fast convergence of the series representation implies that the magnified approximation error "x" is still strictly smaller than 1. From this contradiction we deduce that "e" is irrational. Suppose that "e" is a rational number. Then there exist positive integers "a"