The Second Story of Meno A Continuation of Socrates' Dialogue with Meno in Which the Boy Proves Root 2 is Irrational

"The Second Story of Meno" by Unknown is a philosophical discussion from ancient Greece that continues the exploration of knowledge that began in the initial "Meno". In this story, Socrates and Meno focus on the mathematical problem of whether the square root of two can be written as a simple fraction, and Socrates guides a young boy toward understanding that it cannot. By asking smart questions, Socrates helps the boy look at all the possibilities involving whole numbers, figure out what doesn't work, and finally, accept that the square root of two is not rational. As the boy reasons his way to solving the problem of whether the square root of two is irrational, he earns his freedom and a reward and demonstrates the power of thinking carefully, learning by asking questions, and discovering important ideas.