Published 2024-07-11
Keywords
- Continued fractions,
- Stern-Brocot tree,
- Elementary number theory
Abstract
In the early 20th century, continued fractions used to be a regular
ingredient of the school curriculum, but they have now all but disappeared. In
this article we present an elementary treatment based on the Stern-Brocot tree,
with emphasis on the fact that they provide a more natural way to represent
irrational numbers than the usual decimal expansion.
