All square roots are periodic when written as continued fractions and can be written in the form:
√N = a0 + |
1
| ||
a1 + |
1
| ||
a2 + |
1
| ||
a3 + ... |
For example, let us consider √23:
√23 = 4 + √23 — 4 = 4 + |
1
| = 4 + |
1
| |
1
√23—4 | 1 + |
√23 – 3
7 |
If we continue we would get the following expansion:
√23 = 4 + |
1
| |||
1 + |
1
| |||
3 + |
1
| |||
1 + |
1
| |||
8 + ... |
The process can be summarised as follows:
a0 = 4, |
1
√23—4 | = |
√23+4
7 | = 1 + |
√23—3
7 | |
a1 = 1, |
7
√23—3 | = |
7(√23+3)
14 | = 3 + |
√23—3
2 | |
a2 = 3, |
2
√23—3 | = |
2(√23+3)
14 | = 1 + |
√23—4
7 | |
a3 = 1, |
7
√23—4 | = |
7(√23+4)
7 | = 8 + | √23—4 | |
a4 = 8, |
1
√23—4 | = |
√23+4
7 | = 1 + |
√23—3
7 | |
a5 = 1, |
7
√23—3 | = |
7(√23+3)
14 | = 3 + |
√23—3
2 | |
a6 = 3, |
2
√23—3 | = |
2(√23+3)
14 | = 1 + |
√23—4
7 | |
a7 = 1, |
7
√23—4 | = |
7(√23+4)
7 | = 8 + | √23—4 |
It can be seen that the sequence is repeating. For conciseness, we use the notation √23 = [4;(1,3,1,8)], to indicate that the block (1,3,1,8) repeats indefinitely.
The first ten continued fraction representations of (irrational) square roots are:
√2=[1;(2)], period=1
√3=[1;(1,2)], period=2
√5=[2;(4)], period=1
√6=[2;(2,4)], period=2
√7=[2;(1,1,1,4)], period=4
√8=[2;(1,4)], period=2
√10=[3;(6)], period=1
√11=[3;(3,6)], period=2
√12= [3;(2,6)], period=2
√13=[3;(1,1,1,1,6)], period=5
Exactly four continued fractions, for N ≤ 13, have an odd period.
How many continued fractions for N ≤ 10000 have an odd period?
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int getPeriod(int n)
{
int pd = 0;
int m = 0, d = 1;
int a0 = int(sqrt(n));
int a = a0;
while (a != 2 * a0)
{
m = a*d - m;
d = (n - m*m) / d;
a = int((sqrt(n) + m) / d);
pd++;
}
return pd;
}
int main()
{
int count = 0;
for (int i = 2; i <= 10000; i++)
{
if (int(sqrt(i))*int(sqrt(i)) == i)
continue;
if (getPeriod(i) % 2 != 0)
count++;
//cout << i << " " << getPeriod(i) << endl;
}
cout << count << endl;
system("pause");
return 0;
}