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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 . In Unicode, precomposed fraction characters are in the Number Forms block.
For example, in duodecimal, 1 / 2 = 0.6, 1 / 3 = 0.4, 1 / 4 = 0.3 and 1 / 6 = 0.2 all terminate; 1 / 5 = 0. 2497 repeats with period length 4, in contrast with the equivalent decimal expansion of 0.2; 1 / 7 = 0. 186A35 has period 6 in duodecimal, just as it does in decimal. If b is an integer base ...
It is the extension to non-integer numbers (decimal fractions) of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system. The way of denoting numbers in the decimal system is often referred to as decimal notation. [2] A decimal numeral (also often just decimal or, less correctly, decimal number), refers generally to the notation of a number in the decimal numeral ...
In mathematics, "rational" is often used as a noun abbreviating "rational number". The adjective rational sometimes means that the coefficients are rational numbers. For example, a rational point is a point with rational coordinates (i.e., a point whose coordinates are rational numbers); a rational matrix is a matrix of rational numbers; a rational polynomial may be a polynomial with rational ...
The set of rational numbers is not complete. For example, the sequence (1; 1.4; 1.41; 1.414; 1.4142; 1.41421; ...), where each term adds a digit of the decimal expansion of the positive square root of 2, is Cauchy but it does not converge to a rational number (in the real numbers, in contrast, it converges to the positive square root of 2).
A fixed-point representation of a fractional number is essentially an integer that is to be implicitly multiplied by a fixed scaling factor. For example, the value 1.23 can be stored in a variable as the integer value 1230 with implicit scaling factor of 1/1000 (meaning that the last 3 decimal digits are implicitly assumed to be a decimal fraction), and the value 1 230 000 can be represented ...
1 ⁄ 3 = 0.33333... 1 ⁄ 7 = 0.142857142857... 1318 ⁄ 185 = 7.1243243243... Every time this happens the number is still a rational number (i.e. can alternatively be represented as a ratio of an integer and a positive integer). Also the converse is true: The decimal expansion of a rational number is either finite, or endlessly repeating.
Stevin, however, did not use the notation we use today. He drew circles around the exponents of the powers of one tenth: thus he wrote 7.3486 as 7 3 (1) 4 (2) 8 (3) 6 (4). In De Thiende Stevin not only demonstrated how decimal fractions could be used but also advocated that a decimal system should be used for weights and measures and for coinage."