rational number

Bob, Richard,

I just received the mail from Mr. Richard Schumacher about
"rationale". I do not have too many math books in my office,
however, I do have a lot in my Houston home. One book that
I have in office is "Mathematical Analysis" by Tom M. Apostol,
second edition. In Apostol's book, page 6, Section 1.8, he says
the following:

     Quotients of integers a/b (where b/= 0) are called
rational numbers.

I also check my dictionary, Webster'II New Riverside University
Dictionary, page 976, it says,

rational 4.Math. Designating an algebraic expression no
            variable of which appears in an irreducible radical
            or with a fractional exponent.

rationale 1.The fundamental reasons for something: BASIS

I believe we should use rational instead of rationale.

Regards,
Francis Kai
Dell Computer Corporation

>From icx.com!bob Wed Feb 8 13:20:34 1995
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>Date: Wed, 8 Feb 95 09:56 PST
>From: bob@icx.com ( Bob Ross)
>To: ibis@vhdl.org, schumach@flare.convex.com
>Subject: Re: BIRD25.1 DATA DERIVATION EXPANSION
>Status: RO
>
>Richard
>
>Thank you for your correction. All comments including spelling are welcome.
>Now I understand why I had problems with "rationale" numbers in math.
>
>Bob Ross

> One bit of nit-picking:

> >The rational for "min" and "max" columns needs to be expressed.
> ^^^^^^^^
> rationale

> Regards,
> Richard Schumacher
Received on Wed Feb 8 13:21:55 1995