It extended an idea first noted by Liouville, then pushed forward by Thue who proved that, given a rational number q and any e > 0 there are only finitely many rational numbers p/q (in their lowest terms) such that
Palugit na ito ng ideya sa pamamagitan ng unang kilala Liouville, pagkatapos ay hunhon forward sa pamamagitan ng Thue sino na ang, na ibinigay ng isang makatuwiran bilang q at anumang e> 0 may lamang finitely maraming katuwiran numero p / q (sa kani-kanilang mga pinakamababang terms) na