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A way to express division all on one line is to write the dividend (or numerator), then a slash, then the divisor (or denominator), as follows: / This is the usual way of specifying division in most computer programming languages, since it can easily be typed as a simple sequence of ASCII characters.
When the numerator and the denominator are both positive, the fraction is called proper if the numerator is less than the denominator, and improper otherwise. [11] The concept of an "improper fraction" is a late development, with the terminology deriving from the fact that "fraction" means "a piece", so a proper fraction must be less than 1. [ 10 ]
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.
In algebra, the partial fraction decomposition or partial fraction expansion of a rational fraction (that is, a fraction such that the numerator and the denominator are both polynomials) is an operation that consists of expressing the fraction as a sum of a polynomial (possibly zero) and one or several fractions with a simpler denominator.
A common, vulgar, or simple fraction (examples: and ) consists of an integer numerator, displayed above a line (or before a slash like 1 ⁄ 2), and a non-zero integer denominator, displayed below (or after) that line. If these integers are positive, then the numerator represents a number of equal parts, and the denominator indicates how many ...
A continued fraction is an expression of the form = + + + + + where the a n (n > 0) are the partial numerators, the b n are the partial denominators, and the leading term b 0 is called the integer part of the continued fraction.
For example, a fraction is put in lowest terms by cancelling out the common factors of the numerator and the denominator. [2] As another example, if a×b=a×c, then the multiplicative term a can be canceled out if a≠0, resulting in the equivalent expression b=c; this is equivalent to dividing through by a.
On the other hand, 2 / 4 is reducible since it is equal in value to 1 / 2 , and the numerator of 1 / 2 is less than the numerator of 2 / 4 . A fraction that is reducible can be reduced by dividing both the numerator and denominator by a common factor.