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In mathematics, the lowest common denominator or least common denominator (abbreviated LCD) is the lowest common multiple of the denominators of a set of fractions. It simplifies adding, subtracting, and comparing fractions.
Comparing fractions with the same positive denominator yields the same result as comparing the numerators: > because 3 > 2, and the equal denominators are positive. If the equal denominators are negative, then the opposite result of comparing the numerators holds for the fractions:
The difference of two squares can also be used in the rationalising of irrational denominators. [2] This is a method for removing surds from expressions (or at least moving them), applying to division by some combinations involving square roots.
Continued fractions can also be applied to problems in number theory, and are especially useful in the study of Diophantine equations. In the late eighteenth century Lagrange used continued fractions to construct the general solution of Pell's equation, thus answering a question that had fascinated mathematicians for more than a thousand years. [9]
For example, 1 / 4 , 5 / 6 , and −101 / 100 are all irreducible fractions. 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 ...
If two fractions a/c < b/d are adjacent (neighbouring) fractions in a segment of F n then the determinant relation = mentioned above is generally valid and therefore the mediant is the simplest fraction in the interval (a/c, b/d), in the sense of being the fraction with the smallest denominator.
Generalizing this argument, any infinite sum of values of a monotone decreasing positive function of (like the harmonic series) has partial sums that are within a bounded distance of the values of the corresponding integrals. Therefore, the sum converges if and only if the integral over the same range of the same function converges.
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.