Comparison of Continued Fractions
Consider x = and y = . If k is the smallest index for which ak is unequal to bk then x < y if (−1)k(ak − bk) < 0 and y < x otherwise.
If there is no such k, but one expansion is shorter than the other, say x = and y = with ai = bi for 0 ≤ i ≤ n, then x < y if n is even and y < x if n is odd.
Read more about this topic: Continued Fraction
Famous quotes containing the words comparison and/or continued:
“I have travelled a good deal in Concord; and everywhere, in shops, and offices, and fields, the inhabitants have appeared to me to be doing penance in a thousand remarkable ways.... The twelve labors of Hercules were trifling in comparison with those which my neighbors have undertaken; for they were only twelve, and had an end; but I could never see that these men slew or captured any monster or finished any labor.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“That, upon the whole, we may conclude that the Christian religion not only was at first attended with miracles, but even at this day cannot be believed by any reasonable person without one. Mere reason is insufficient to convince us of its veracity: And whoever is moved by Faith to assent to it, is conscious of a continued miracle in his own person, which subverts all the principles of his understanding, and gives him a determination to believe what is most contrary to custom and experience.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)