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Lecture 20: Continued Fractions IV:
Applications

William Stein


Date: Math 124 $ \quad$ HARVARD UNIVERSITY $ \quad$ Fall 2001

In this lecture we will learn about two applications of continued fractions. The first is a solution to the computational problem of recognizing a rational number using a computer. The second application is to the following ancient question: Given a positive nonsquare integer $ d$, find integers $ x$ and $ y$ such that $ x^2 - dy^2 = 1$.





William A Stein 2001-10-29