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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.
The Archimedean property: any point x before the finish line lies between two of the points P n (inclusive).. It is possible to prove the equation 0.999... = 1 using just the mathematical tools of comparison and addition of (finite) decimal numbers, without any reference to more advanced topics such as series and limits.
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 ]
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
On the Windows calculator, 1001 is the smallest positive integer whose reciprocal is automatically displayed in scientific notation. On Windows Calculator, numbers larger than 10 32 and non-terminating decimals smaller than 0.001 or 10 −3 are always displayed exponentially.
Square roots of positive numbers are not in general rational numbers, and so cannot be written as a terminating or recurring decimal expression. Therefore in general any attempt to compute a square root expressed in decimal form can only yield an approximation, though a sequence of increasingly accurate approximations can be obtained.
In the case of irrational numbers, the decimal expansion does not terminate, nor end with a repeating sequence. For example, the decimal representation of π starts with 3.14159, but no finite number of digits can represent π exactly, nor does it repeat. Conversely, a decimal expansion that terminates or repeats must be a rational number.
Rules for calculating the periods of repeating decimals from rational fractions were given by James Whitbread Lee Glaisher in 1878. [5] For a prime p, the period of its reciprocal divides p − 1. [6] The sequence of recurrence periods of the reciprocal primes (sequence A002371 in the OEIS) appears in the 1973 Handbook of Integer Sequences.