Prove $2^{1/3} + 2^{2/3}$ is irrational What's the nice 'trick' to showing that the following expression is irrational?
$2^{1/3} + 2^{2/3}$

Here's a slightly more 'sledgehammer' approach: since $x^3-2$ is irreducible over the rationals, the minimal polynomial of its root $z=2^{1/3}$ must be of degree three.  But if $2^{1/3}+2^{2/3}$ were rational, say $\frac ab$, then that would imply that $z+z^2=\frac ab$, or $bz^2+bz-a=0$, contradicting the minimal-degree statement above.
OTOH, we get a nice prize for all this 'heavy machinery': the exact same argument shows in one fell swoop that $a2^{1/3}+b2^{2/3}$ is irrational for all (nonzero) rational $a,b$; in other words, $2^{1/3}$ and $2^{2/3}$ are linearly independent over $\mathbb{Q}$.
