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A simple fraction (also known as a common fraction or vulgar fraction, where vulgar is Latin for "common") is a rational number written as a / b or , where a and b are both integers. [9] As with other fractions, the denominator ( b) cannot be zero. Examples include 1 2, − 8 5, −8 5, and 8 −5.
Continued fraction. A finite regular continued fraction, where is a non-negative integer, is an integer, and is a positive integer, for . In mathematics, a continued fraction is an expression obtained through an iterative process of representing a number as the sum of its integer part and the reciprocal of another number, then writing this ...
Using tangent half-angle formulas, it follows immediately that α = sin A = 2r / (1 + r 2) and β = cos A = (1 − r 2) / (1 + r 2) are both rational and that α 2 + β 2 = 1. Multiplying up by the smallest integer that clears the denominators of α and β recovers the original primitive Pythagorean triple.
Thus, in the expression 1 + 2 × 3, the multiplication is performed before addition, and the expression has the value 1 + (2 × 3) = 7, and not (1 + 2) × 3 = 9. When exponents were introduced in the 16th and 17th centuries, they were given precedence over both addition and multiplication and placed as a superscript to the right of their base. [2]
The factorial number system is a mixed radix notation for numbers in which the place values of each digit are factorials. [41] Factorials are used extensively in probability theory , for instance in the Poisson distribution [42] and in the probabilities of random permutations . [43]
Every terminating decimal representation can be written as a decimal fraction, a fraction whose denominator is a power of 10 (e.g. 1.585 = 1585 / 1000 ); it may also be written as a ratio of the form k / 2 n ·5 m (e.g. 1.585 = 317 / 2 3 ·5 2 ).
A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways of writing it as a product, 1 × 5 or 5 × 1, involve 5 itself. However, 4 is composite because it is a ...
As for fractions, the simplest form is considered that in which the numbers in the ratio are the smallest possible integers. Thus, the ratio 40:60 is equivalent in meaning to the ratio 2:3, the latter being obtained from the former by dividing both quantities by 20. Mathematically, we write 40:60 = 2:3, or equivalently 40:60∷2:3.