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A repeating decimal or recurring decimal is a decimal representation of a number whose digits are eventually periodic (that is, after some place, the same sequence of digits is repeated forever); if this sequence consists only of zeros (that is if there is only a finite number of nonzero digits), the decimal is said to be terminating, and is not considered as repeating.
In this context, the usual decimals, with a finite number of non-zero digits after the decimal separator, are sometimes called terminating decimals. A repeating decimal is an infinite decimal that, after some place, repeats indefinitely the same sequence of digits (e.g., 5.123144144144144... = 5.123 144 ). [ 4 ]
To change 1 / 3 to a decimal, divide 1.000... by 3 (" 3 into 1.000... "), and stop when the desired accuracy is obtained, e.g., at 4 decimals with 0.3333. The fraction 1 / 4 can be written exactly with two decimal digits, while the fraction 1 / 3 cannot be written exactly as a
The procedure can also be extended to include divisors which have a finite or terminating decimal expansion (i.e. decimal fractions). In this case the procedure involves multiplying the divisor and dividend by the appropriate power of ten so that the new divisor is an integer – taking advantage of the fact that a ÷ b = ( ca ) ÷ ( cb ...
According to George Sarton, "The Thiende was the earliest treatise deliberately devoted to the study of decimal fractions, and STEVIN's account is the earliest account of them. Hence, even if decimal fractions were used previously by other men, it was STEVIN – and no other – who introduced them into the mathematical domain.
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 ...
Such a decimal representation specifies the real number as the least upper bound of the decimal fractions that are obtained by truncating the sequence: given a positive integer n, the truncation of the sequence at the place n is the finite partial sum
A unit fraction is a positive fraction with one as its numerator, 1/ n. It is the multiplicative inverse (reciprocal) of the denominator of the fraction, ...