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For example, 1 / 4 , 5 / 6 , and −101 / 100 are all irreducible fractions. On the other hand, 2 / 4 is reducible since it is equal in value to 1 / 2 , and the numerator of 1 / 2 is less than the numerator of 2 / 4 . A fraction that is reducible can be reduced by dividing both the numerator ...
Unit fractions can also be expressed using negative exponents, as in 2 −1, which represents 1/2, and 2 −2, which represents 1/(2 2) or 1/4. A dyadic fraction is a common fraction in which the denominator is a power of two , e.g. 1 / 8 = 1 / 2 3 .
A method analogous to piece-wise linear approximation but using only arithmetic instead of algebraic equations, uses the multiplication tables in reverse: the square root of a number between 1 and 100 is between 1 and 10, so if we know 25 is a perfect square (5 × 5), and 36 is a perfect square (6 × 6), then the square root of a number greater than or equal to 25 but less than 36, begins with ...
If n is even, a complex number's nth roots, of which there are an even number, come in additive inverse pairs, so that if a number r 1 is one of the nth roots then r 2 = –r 1 is another. This is because raising the latter's coefficient –1 to the nth power for even n yields 1: that is, (–r 1) n = (–1) n × r 1 n = r 1 n.
Note that if n 2 is the closest perfect square to the desired square x and d = x - n 2 is their difference, it is more convenient to express this approximation in the form of mixed fraction as . Thus, in the previous example, the square root of 15 is 4 − 1 8 . {\displaystyle 4{\tfrac {-1}{8}}.}
In the case of two nested square roots, the following theorem completely solves the problem of denesting. [2]If a and c are rational numbers and c is not the square of a rational number, there are two rational numbers x and y such that + = if and only if is the square of a rational number d.
By applying the fundamental recurrence formulas we may easily compute the successive convergents of this continued fraction to be 1, 3/2, 7/5, 17/12, 41/29, 99/70, 239/169, ..., where each successive convergent is formed by taking the numerator plus the denominator of the preceding term as the denominator in the next term, then adding in the ...
Fractions such as 1 ⁄ 3 are displayed as decimal approximations, for example rounded to 0.33333333. Also, some fractions (such as 1 ⁄ 7, which is 0.14285714285714; to 14 significant figures) can be difficult to recognize in decimal form; as a result, many scientific calculators are able to work in vulgar fractions or mixed numbers.