Repeating decimals in converted fractions, why these increments?

298 Views Asked by At

In regards to repeating decimals and cyclic numbers: I understand that many of them, while multiplying by certain integers will produce a number with the same variant of digits, however my question is in regards to the patterns already occurring within some of them.

Many fractions that convert into a number with repeating decimals, will exhibit a pattern within the repetend. This pattern is made of a consecutive list of numbers growing by the same multiple.

example: $1/31=0.032258064516129...$., the repetend is $032258064516129$ which can be broken into the numbers $032258$, $064516$, $129032$ that are related by multiples of 2: $$032258∗2=064516, \quad 064516∗2=129032.$$

example: $1/13=0.076923....$, the repetend is $076923$ which can be broken into $0769$, $2307$ that are related by multiplying by 3: $$0769∗3=2307$$

example: $1/17=0.0588235294117647....$, the repetend is $0588235294117647$ which can be broken into the numbers $5882352941$, $11764705882$ that are related by multiplying by 2: $$5882352941∗2=11764705882$$

example: $1/19=0.052631578947368421...$, the repetend is $052631578947368421$ which can be broken into the numbers $05263$ , $15789$ , $47367$ , $142101$ (think of the initial 1 in 142101 being removed from the 8 in the preceding 47368) that are related by multiples of 3: $$05263∗3=15789, \quad 15789∗3=47367, \quad 47367∗3=142101$$

example: $1/21=0.047619...$, the repetend is $047619$ which can be broken into the numbers $0476$, $1904$ that are related by multiplying by 4: $$0476∗4=1904$$

What are these multiples? That is, given 1/$n$ with a repeating decimal, what multiple connects the different pieces of the repetend? (And how long are those pieces?)

1

There are 1 best solutions below

0
On BEST ANSWER

The first thing to think about is finding the repeating decimal by long division. Taking $1/17$ for example, your first division starts with a remainder $1$. You append a $0$ to it and try to divide $17$ into $10$. It goes $0$ times, which gives the leading $0$ in the repeat. You then pass a remainder of $10$ to the next digit. You pull down another $0$, getting $100$, divide $17$ into it getting $5$ with a remainder of $15$. The $5$ is the second digit of the repeat and the $15$ goes on for the next digit.

If you have a full length repeat like $17$, you must use each of the remainders from $1$ to $17-1$ once. When you repeat a remainder you have finished the repeat. For $13$, which has only a six digit repeat you only use six remainders. This explains all the relationships you show.

After the $n^{th}$ digit the remainder is $10^n \mod 17$. We can find that $10^{10} \equiv 2 \pmod {17}$ That means after $10$ digits you pass a remainder of $2$ to the next digit. The repeat from there will clearly be twice the repeat starting from the front, where the remainder is $1$.