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Ed Quanta
Apr28-04, 09:05 PM
I have to find the least upperbounds on N and P where x is an element of the reals and represented by the repeating decimal

x=m.d1d2...dNdN+1...dN+P instead of underlining I meant for this to be an overline representing the repeating sequence of digits in the decimal

mathman
Apr29-04, 04:27 PM
The problem as stated has no answer. Both N and P are unbounded, unless there are other conditions which you haven't presented.

mathwonk
Jul23-04, 03:28 PM
I beg to differ with mathman.

the fact that the decimal is repeating implies that the real number x is a fraction A/B where A and B are integers. then it makes sense to give a bound on N as well as on P in terms of A and B.

I.e. N is the number of terms until the decimal starts to repeat and P is the length of a cycle after it starts repeating in cycles of the same length. It seems to me that if you just look at what happens when you divide A by B, you will see how to do this.

mathman
Jul23-04, 08:22 PM
For any specific rational x, you have specific values for N and P. However, there are no bounds when considering all rationals.