Would the square root of 8 be irrational or rational?

Question

I don't understand exactly what irrational and rational is.

Also what cateogory [natural/whole/rational/etc] would [negative] square of 17 be?

What category would square root of 96 be? Why?

Answer 1

imaginary numbers are numbers we use for logic, but do not really exist. For instance, it is not possible to take a sqrt of a negative number, but for logic's sake, we get these itty bitty imaginary numbers.  

Answer 2

irrational numbers do not end or repeat, they go on forever.

Pi is an irrational number. It has 1 million decimal places and counting.

all rational numbers can be expressed as the ratio of two integers.

sqrt 8 is irrational. sqrt 9 is rational. sqrt 9 = 3 = 12/4, 6/2, etc

sqrt (-17) is imaginary because no  real number squared is -17. when you square a negative or a positive number, you get a positive number.

sqrt 96 is also irrational