The Remainder For Real Numbers
When a and d are real numbers, with d non-zero, a can be divided by d without remainder, with the quotient being another real number. If the quotient is constrained to being an integer however, the concept of remainder is still necessary. It can be proved that there exists a unique integer quotient q and a unique real remainder r such that a=qd+r with 0≤r < |d|. As in the case of division of integers, the remainder could be required to be negative, that is, -|d| < r ≤ 0.
Extending the definition of remainder for real numbers as described above is not of theoretical importance in mathematics; however, many programming languages implement this definition—see modulo operation.
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