Keith Conrad gave a presentation in 2008 that addresses your question, e.g.:
Pell solutions lead to good rational approximations to $\sqrt{d}$:
[![KConrad][1]][1]
(PDF download presentation from [http://www.math.uconn.edu/~kconrad/](http://www.math.uconn.edu/~kconrad/ross2008/pelltalkOSU.pdf).)
(PDF download presentation from https://kconrad.math.uconn.edu/.)