Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Today, a more standard phrasing of Archimedes' proposition is that the partial sums of the series 1 + 1 / 4 + 1 / 16 + ⋯ are: + + + + = +. This form can be proved by multiplying both sides by 1 − 1 / 4 and observing that all but the first and the last of the terms on the left-hand side of the equation cancel in pairs.
This is denoted as 20 / 5 = 4, or 20 / 5 = 4. [2] In the example, 20 is the dividend, 5 is the divisor, and 4 is the quotient. Unlike the other basic operations, when dividing natural numbers there is sometimes a remainder that will not go evenly into the dividend; for example, 10 / 3 leaves a remainder of 1, as 10 is not a multiple of 3.
Long division is the standard algorithm used for pen-and-paper division of multi-digit numbers expressed in decimal notation. It shifts gradually from the left to the right end of the dividend, subtracting the largest possible multiple of the divisor (at the digit level) at each stage; the multiples then become the digits of the quotient, and the final difference is then the remainder.
6 1 2 1 1 −1 4 5 9. and would be written in modern notation as 6 1 / 4 , 1 1 / 5 , and 2 − 1 / 9 (i.e., 1 8 / 9 ). The horizontal fraction bar is first attested in the work of Al-Hassār (fl. 1200), [35] a Muslim mathematician from Fez, Morocco, who specialized in Islamic inheritance jurisprudence.
This series was used as a representation of two of Zeno's paradoxes. [2] For example, in the paradox of Achilles and the Tortoise, the warrior Achilles was to race against a tortoise. The track is 100 meters long. Achilles could run at 10 m/s, while the tortoise only 5. The tortoise, with a 10-meter advantage, Zeno argued, would win.
For the multiplicative inverse of a real number, divide 1 by the number. For example, the reciprocal of 5 is one fifth (1/5 or 0.2), and the reciprocal of 0.25 is 1 divided by 0.25, or 4. The reciprocal function, the function f(x) that maps x to 1/x, is one of the simplest examples of a function which is its own inverse (an involution).
The partial sums of the series 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + ⋯ are 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, etc.The nth partial sum is given by a simple formula: = = (+). This equation was known ...
The idea becomes clearer by considering the general series 1 − 2x + 3x 2 − 4x 3 + 5x 4 − 6x 5 + &c. that arises while expanding the expression 1 ⁄ (1+x) 2, which this series is indeed equal to after we set x = 1.