2010/1/2 Robert Berman <[email protected]>: > Hi, > > I am trying to build an algorithm or methodology which will let me tell > if a decimal has a repeating sequence of digits and if it does have that > attribute, what is the sequence of digits. For example, 1/3.0 = > 0.333333333..By eyeballing we know it has a repeating sequence and we > know that the sequence is .3333.....A little more complex is 1/7.0 = > 0.142857142857 but still is equivalent. A harder example is 45/56.0 = > 0.8035714285714286. Here we have a repeating sequence but it comes after > the first three digits. > > What I am looking for are ideas and suggestions looking for patterns. I > do know I should use a relatively large precision as repeating values > may constitute a rather long sequence. I did see, on Google, a > suggestion to use a precision of 1000. > > Thank you for any and all ideas and suggestions. > > > Robert Berman > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Tutor maillist - [email protected] > To unsubscribe or change subscription options: > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor >
When it comes to number theory, I always turn first of all to wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repeating_decimal If that doesn't help, I usually turn to Wolfram: http://mathworld.wolfram.com/RepeatingDecimal.html Between the two, and the links therefrom, there's probably all the information you need. -- Rich "Roadie Rich" Lovely There are 10 types of people in the world: those who know binary, those who do not, and those who are off by one. _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - [email protected] To unsubscribe or change subscription options: http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
