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SciMax Toolbox >> rationalize

rationalize

Maxima Function

Calling Sequence

rationalize (expr)

Description

Convert all double floats and big floats in the Maxima expression expr to their exact rational equivalents. If you are not familiar with the binary representation of floating point numbers, you might be surprised that rationalize (0.1) does not equal 1/10. This behavior isn't special to Maxima -- the number 1/10 has a repeating, not a terminating, binary representation.

(%i1) rationalize (0.5);
                                1
(%o1)                           -
                                2
(%i2) rationalize (0.1);
                               1
(%o2)                          --
                               10
(%i3) fpprec : 5$
(%i4) rationalize (0.1b0);
                             209715
(%o4)                        -------
                             2097152
(%i5) fpprec : 20$
(%i6) rationalize (0.1b0);
                     236118324143482260685
(%o6)                ----------------------
                     2361183241434822606848
(%i7) rationalize (sin (0.1*x + 5.6));
                              x    28
(%o7)                     sin(-- + --)
                              10   5

Example use:

(%i1) unitfrac(r) := block([uf : [], q],
    if not(ratnump(r)) then
       error("The input to 'unitfrac' must be a rational number"),
    while r # 0 do (
        uf : cons(q : 1/ceiling(1/r), uf),
        r : r - q),
    reverse(uf));
(%o1) unitfrac(r) := block([uf : [], q],
if not ratnump(r) then
   error("The input to 'unitfrac' must be a rational number"),
                                  1
while r # 0 do (uf : cons(q : ----------, uf), r : r - q),
                                      1
                              ceiling(-)
                                      r
reverse(uf))
(%i2) unitfrac (9/10);
                            1  1  1
(%o2)                      [-, -, --]
                            2  3  15
(%i3) apply ("+", %);
                               9
(%o3)                          --
                               10
(%i4) unitfrac (-9/10);
                                  1
(%o4)                       [- 1, --]
                                  10
(%i5) apply ("+", %);
                                9
(%o5)                         - --
                                10
(%i6) unitfrac (36/37);
                        1  1  1  1    1
(%o6)                  [-, -, -, --, ----]
                        2  3  8  69  6808
(%i7) apply ("+", %);
                               36
(%o7)                          --
                               37
rational SciMax Toolbox ratmx