Existence of a real number such that when added to seq of real gives all irrationals

Let a_1,a_2,...,a_n be arbitrary real numbers. Prove that there exists a real number x such that each of the numbers x+a_1,x+a_2,...,x+a_n is irrational.

It’s easy to see that if all a_1,a_2,a_3,... are rational numbers then any irrational number will do the job because the sum of rational+irrational is always an irrational number.

To prove this let’s assume that there exists an irrational number \alpha and we generate the following numbers \alpha,2\alpha,3\alpha,...,n\alpha,,(n+1)\alpha and we see that all these numbers are irrationals since rational \times irrational = irrational. Our claim is that some x \in \{\alpha,2\alpha,3\alpha,...,n\alpha,,(n+1)\alpha \} will satisfy x+a_1,x+a_2,...,x+a_n is irrational.

Suppose this is not true then it means that there is at least one rational number, we create the following table

\alpha+a_1, \alpha+a_2, \alpha+a_3,..., \alpha+a_n

2\alpha+a_1, 2\alpha+a_2, 2\alpha+a_3,..., 2\alpha+a_n

:,:,...:

n\alpha+a_1, n\alpha+a_2, n\alpha+a_3,..., n\alpha+a_n

(n+1)\alpha+a_1, (n+1)\alpha+a_2, (n+1)\alpha+a_3,..., (n+1)\alpha+a_n

Thus the table consists of at least n+1 rational numbers and since it has n columns, at least two of these rationals are in the same column. In other words there exists positive integers i,j and k, i \ne j such that i\alpha+a_k and j\alpha+a_k are rationals. But then the number (i-j)\alpha=(i\alpha+a_k)-(j\alpha+a_k) is also rational, and this contradicts the irrationality of \alpha

 

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