Using rational approximations what statement is true

√16<4
√12<π
√12>π
√16>4

1 answer

Let’s evaluate each of the statements using rational approximations.

  1. \(\sqrt{16} < 4\):

    • \(\sqrt{16} = 4\)
    • Therefore, this statement is false.
  2. \(\sqrt{12} < \pi\):

    • Approximating \(\sqrt{12}\): \(\sqrt{12} = \sqrt{4 \cdot 3} = 2\sqrt{3}\).
      • \(\sqrt{3} \approx 1.732\)
      • Thus, \(\sqrt{12} \approx 2 \times 1.732 \approx 3.464\).
    • Now, \(\pi \approx 3.14\).
    • Therefore, this statement is true as \(3.464 > 3.14\).
  3. \(\sqrt{12} > \pi\):

    • Since we already approximated \(\sqrt{12} \approx 3.464\) and \(\pi \approx 3.14\), this statement is also true.
  4. \(\sqrt{16} > 4\):

    • As mentioned before, \(\sqrt{16} = 4\), thus this is false.

So the statements we evaluated show that \(\sqrt{12} > \pi\) and \(\sqrt{12} < \pi\) cannot both be true at the same time; \(\sqrt{12} > \pi\) is the correct statement.

Thus, the correct statements are:

  • \(\sqrt{12} > \pi\) is true.
  • \(\sqrt{12} < \pi\) is false.
  • \(\sqrt{16} < 4\) is false.
  • \(\sqrt{16} > 4\) is false.

The overall conclusion is that the only true statement is \(\sqrt{12} > \pi\).