Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The simplest fraction 3 / y with a three-term expansion is 3 / 7 . A fraction 4 / y requires four terms in its greedy expansion if and only if y ≡ 1 or 17 (mod 24), for then the numerator −y mod x of the remaining fraction is 3 and the denominator is 1 (mod 6). The simplest fraction 4 / y with a four-term ...
In such a situation it may be convenient to express the original continued fraction as two different continued fractions, one of them converging to p, and the other converging to q. The formulas for the even and odd parts of a continued fraction can be written most compactly if the fraction has already been transformed so that all its partial ...
Problems 1–6 compute divisions of a certain number of loaves of bread by 10 men and record the outcome in unit fractions. Problems 7–20 show how to multiply the expressions 1 + 1/2 + 1/4 = 7/4, and 1 + 2/3 + 1/3 = 2 by different fractions. Problems 21–23 are problems in completion, which in modern notation are simply subtraction problems.
A root of degree 2 is called a square root and a root of degree 3, a cube root. Roots of higher degree are referred by using ordinal numbers, as in fourth root, twentieth root, etc. The computation of an n th root is a root extraction. For example, 3 is a square root of 9, since 3 2 = 9, and −3 is also a square root of 9, since (−3) 2 = 9.
A simple fraction (also known as a common fraction or vulgar fraction) [n 1] 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 .
Denoting the two roots by r 1 and r 2 we distinguish three cases. If the discriminant is zero the fraction converges to the single root of multiplicity two. If the discriminant is not zero, and |r 1 | ≠ |r 2 |, the continued fraction converges to the root of maximum modulus (i.e., to the root with the greater absolute value).
Every finite continued fraction represents a rational number, and every rational number can be represented in precisely two different ways as a finite continued fraction, with the conditions that the first coefficient is an integer and the other coefficients are positive integers. These two representations agree except in their final terms.
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. [1]