In the classroom: Where, on the number line, is the square root of two?

Although the irrational numbers are introduced in the junior high school, much of the student's conception of these numbers is limited to visualizing or working with the decimal numeral form. The idea of the nonrepeating, nonterminating decimal tends to confound these mathematically immature students. The set of irrational numbers does not, at this time, afford such students a comfortable working climate as does the set of rationals.