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:
“Most parents arent even aware of how often they compare their children. . . . Comparisons carry the suggestion that specific conditions exist for parental love and acceptance. Thus, even when one child comes out on top in a comparison she is left feeling uneasy about the tenuousness of her position and the possibility of faring less well in the next comparison.”
—Marianne E. Neifert (20th century)
“The protection of a ten-year-old girl from her fathers advances is a necessary condition of social order, but the protection of the father from temptation is a necessary condition of his continued social adjustment. The protections that are built up in the child against desire for the parent become the essential counterpart to the attitudes in the parent that protect the child.”
—Margaret Mead (19011978)