I am reading "Numerical Methods for Engineers" by Chapra and Canale. In it, they've provided pseudocode for the implementation of Euler's method (for solving ordinary differential equations). Here is the pseucode:
Pseucode for implementing Euler's method
I tried implementing this code in GNU Octave, but depending on the input values, I am getting one of two errors:
The program doesn't give any output at all. I have to press 'Ctrl + C' in order to break execution.
The program gives this message:
error: 'ynew' undefined near line 5 column 21
error: called from
Integrator at line 5 column 9
main at line 18 column 7
I would be very grateful if you could get this program to work for me. I am actually an amateur in GNU Octave. Thank you.
Edit 1: Here is my code. For main.m:
%prompt user
y = input('Initial value of y:');
xi = input('Initial value of x:');
xf = input('Final value of x:');
dx = input('Step size:');
xout = input('Output interval:');
x = xi;
m = 0;
xpm = x;
ypm = y;
while(1)
xend = x + xout;
if xend > xf
xend = xf;
h = dx;
Integrator(x,y,h,xend);
m = m + 1;
xpm = x;
ypm = y;
if x >= xf
break;
endif
endif
end
For Integrator.m:
function Integrator(x,y,h,xend)
while(1)
if xend - x < h
h = xend - x;
Euler(x,y,h,ynew);
y = ynew;
if x >= xend
break;
endif
endif
end
endfunction
For Euler.m:
function Euler(x,y,h,ynew)
Derivs(x,y,dydx);
ynew = y + dydx * h;
x = x + h;
endfunction
For Derivs.m:
function Derivs(x,y,dydx)
dydx = -2 * x^3 + 12 * x^2 - 20 * x + 8.5;
endfunction
Edit 2: I shoud mention that the differential equation which Chapra and Canale have given as an example is:
y'(x) = -2 * x^3 + 12 * x^2 - 20 * x + 8.5
That is why the 'Derivs.m' script shows dydx to be this particular polynomial.
Here is my final code. It has four different M-files:
main.m
%prompt the user
y = input('Initial value of y:');
x = input('Initial value of x:');
xf = input('Final value of x:');
dx = input('Step size:');
xout = dx;
%boring calculations
m = 1;
xp = [x];
yp = [y];
while x < xf
[x,y] = Integrator(x,y,dx,min(xf, x+xout));
m = m+1;
xp(m) = x;
yp(m) = y;
end
%plot the final result
plot(xp,yp);
title('Solution using Euler Method');
ylabel('Dependent variable (y)');
xlabel('Independent variable (x)');
grid on;
Integrator.m
%This function takes in 4 inputs (x,y,h,xend) and returns 2 outputs [x,y]
function [x,y] = Integrator(x,y,h,xend)
while x < xend
h = min(h, xend-x);
[x,y] = Euler(x,y,h);
end
endfunction
Euler.m
%This function takes in 3 inputs (x,y,h) and returns 2 outputs [x,ynew]
function [x,ynew] = Euler(x,y,h)
dydx = Derivs(x,y);
ynew = y + dydx * h;
x = x + h;
endfunction
Derivs.m
%This function takes in 2 inputs (x,y) and returns 1 output [dydx]
function [dydx] = Derivs(x,y)
dydx = -2 * x^3 + 12 * x^2 - 20 * x + 8.5;
endfunction
Your functions should look like
function [x, y] = Integrator(x,y,h,xend)
while x < xend
h = min(h, xend-x)
[x,y] = Euler(x,y,h);
end%while
end%function
as an example. Depending on what you want to do with the result, your main loop might need to collect all the results from the single steps. One variant for that is
m = 1;
xp = [x];
yp = [y];
while x < xf
[x,y] = Integrator(x,y,dx,min(xf, x+xout));
m = m+1;
xp(m) = x;
yp(m) = y;
end%while
I'm looking for a small fucntion in ActionScript 3 that could calculate Moon Phases.
I've tried to search on google. The only result is a website that gives this code but I think it's a wrong code.
//return frame number for moon phase display
function getMoonPhase(yr:Number, m:Number, d:Number):int{
//based on http://www.voidware.com/moon_phase.htm
//calculates the moon phase (frames 1-30 )
if (m < 3) { yr -= 1; m += 12; } //
m += 1;
var c:Number = 365.25*yr;
var e:Number = 30.6*m; //jd is total days elapsed
//divide by the moon cycle (29.53 days)
var jd:Number = (c+e+d-694039.09)/29.53; //subtract integer to leave fractional part
jd = jd - int(jd); //range fraction from 0-30 and round by adding 0.5
var frame:int = Math.round(jd*30 + 0.5);
return frame;
}
//test: september 23, 2002, not a full moon? //
Weirdly, sometimes the code is extremely accurate, but sometimes it's wrong..
Example : On the 16 september 2016 it's a full moon.
But if I enter this date in the code the result is "15" (16 is full moon)....
Any idea why ? or another way to calculate moon phases ?
Thx
In that algorithm, c is int, not Number, therefore an implicit round-down occurs here. Same with e. This can total to a one day error in calculation which in turn produces wrong phase.
Edit: Also since you request a 30-frame selection, but have a precision of 29, the calculation can skip a frame. Consider using 15 or 16 frames instead.
function julday(year, month, day) {
if (year < 0) { year ++; }
var jy = parseInt(year);
var jm = parseInt(month) +1;
if (month <= 2) {jy--; jm += 12; }
var jul = Math.floor(365.25 *jy) + Math.floor(30.6001 * jm) + parseInt(day) + 1720995;
if (day+31*(month+12*year) >= (15+31*(10+12*1582))) {
var ja = Math.floor(0.01 * jy);
jul = jul + 2 - ja + Math.floor(0.25 * ja);
}
return jul;
}
function moonphase(year,month,day) {
var n = Math.floor(12.37 * (year -1900 + ((1.0 * month - 0.5)/12.0)));
var RAD = 3.14159265/180.0;
var t = n / 1236.85;
var t2 = t * t;
var aas = 359.2242 + 29.105356 * n;
var am = 306.0253 + 385.816918 * n + 0.010730 * t2;
var xtra = 0.75933 + 1.53058868 * n + ((1.178e-4) - (1.55e-7) * t) * t2;
xtra += (0.1734 - 3.93e-4 * t) * Math.sin(RAD * aas) - 0.4068 * Math.sin(RAD * am);
var i = (xtra > 0.0 ? Math.floor(xtra) : Math.ceil(xtra - 1.0));
var j1 = julday(year,month,day);
var jd = (2415020 + 28 * n) + i;
return (j1-jd + 30)%30;
}
not that i fully understand it, but this should work fine. It's a (straight) port of some Basic code by Roger W. Sinnot from Sky & Telescope magazine, March 1985 ... talk about old school.
if you try with 16 sept 2016 it will give 15. same as 21 sept 2002, which was the actual day of the fullmoon
I am creating a function that returns a Perlin Noise Number in Flash.
For this function I must have a function that returns a random number from a static seed. Unfortunately the default Math.random in Actionscript can't do this..
I searched for a long time on the internet and I couldn't find a solution that fits my perlin-noise function.
I tried the following codes:
public static var seed:int = 602366;
public static function intNoise(x:int, y:int):Number {
var n:Number = seed * 16127 + (x + y * 57);
n = n % 602366;
seed = n | 0;
if (seed <= 0) seed = 1;
return (seed * 0.00000166) * 2 - 1;
}
This function does create a Random number, but the seed changes all the time so this doesn't work with perlin noise.
public static function intNoise(x:int, y:int):Number {
var n:Number = x + y * 57;
n = (n<<13) ^ n;
return ( 1 - ( (n * (n * n * 15731 + 789221) + 1376312589) & 0x7fffffff) / 1073741824.0);
}
I got this function from the Perlin Noise tutorial I followed: Perlin Noise, but it only seems to return 1.
How can I create a function that always returns the same Pseudo-Random number when called with the same seed?
I looked at the random number generator mentioned in the link and it looks like this:
function IntNoise(32-bit integer: x)
x = (x<<13) ^ x;
return ( 1.0 - ( (x * (x * x * 15731 + 789221) + 1376312589) & 7fffffff) / 1073741824.0);
end IntNoise function
I translated it thus:
package
{
import flash.display.*;
public class Main extends Sprite {
private var seeds:Array =
[ -1000, -999, -998, 7, 11, 13, 17, 999, 1000, 1001 ];
public function Main() {
for ( var i:int = 0; i < 10; i++ )
trace( intNoise( seeds[ i ] ) );
// Outputs: 1, 0, 0, -0.595146656036377, -0.1810436248779297,
// 0.8304634094238281, -0.9540863037109375, 0, 0, 1
}
// returns floating point numbers between -1.0 and 1.0
// returns 1 when x <= -1000 || x >= 1001 because b becomes 0
// otherwise performs nicely
public function
intNoise( x:Number ):Number {
x = ( uint( x << 13 ) ) ^ x;
var a:Number = ( x * x * x * 15731 + x * 789221 );
var b:Number = a & 0x7fffffff;
return 1.0 - b / 1073741824.0;
}
}
}
I have an equation for a parabolic curve intersecting a specified point, in my case where the user clicked on a graph.
// this would typically be mouse coords on the graph
var _target:Point = new Point(100, 50);
public static function plot(x:Number, target:Point):Number{
return (x * x) / target.x * (target.y / target.x);
}
This gives a graph such as this:
I also have a series of line segments defined by start and end coordinates:
startX:Number, startY:Number, endX:Number, endY:Number
I need to find if and where this curve intersects these segments (A):
If it's any help, startX is always < endX
I get the feeling there's a fairly straight forward way to do this, but I don't really know what to search for, nor am I very well versed in "proper" math, so actual code examples would be very much appreciated.
UPDATE:
I've got the intersection working, but my solution gives me the coordinate for the wrong side of the y-axis.
Replacing my target coords with A and B respectively, gives this equation for the plot:
(x * x) / A * (B/A)
// this simplifies down to:
(B * x * x) / (A * A)
// which i am the equating to the line's equation
(B * x * x) / (A * A) = m * x + b
// i run this through wolfram alpha (because i have no idea what i'm doing) and get:
(A * A * m - A * Math.sqrt(A * A * m * m + 4 * b * B)) / (2 * B)
This is a correct answer, but I want the second possible variation.
I've managed to correct this by multiplying m with -1 before the calculation and doing the same with the x value the last calculation returns, but that feels like a hack.
SOLUTION:
public static function intersectsSegment(targetX:Number, targetY:Number, startX:Number, startY:Number, endX:Number, endY:Number):Point {
// slope of the line
var m:Number = (endY - startY) / (endX - startX);
// where the line intersects the y-axis
var b:Number = startY - startX * m;
// solve the two variatons of the equation, we may need both
var ix1:Number = solve(targetX, targetY, m, b);
var ix2:Number = solveInverse(targetX, targetY, m, b);
var intersection1:Point;
var intersection2:Point;
// if the intersection is outside the line segment startX/endX it's discarded
if (ix1 > startX && ix1 < endX) intersection1 = new Point(ix1, plot(ix1, targetX, targetY));
if (ix2 > startX && ix2 < endX) intersection2 = new Point(ix2, plot(ix2, targetX, targetY));
// somewhat fiddly code to return the smallest set intersection
if (intersection1 && intersection2) {
// return the intersection with the smaller x value
return intersection1.x < intersection2.x ? intersection1 : intersection2;
} else if (intersection1) {
return intersection1;
}
// this effectively means that we return intersection2 or if that's unset, null
return intersection2;
}
private static function solve(A:Number, B:Number, m:Number, b:Number):Number {
return (m + Math.sqrt(4 * (B / (A * A)) * b + m * m)) / (2 * (B / (A * A)));
}
private static function solveInverse(A:Number, B:Number, m:Number, b:Number):Number {
return (m - Math.sqrt(4 * (B / (A * A)) * b + m * m)) / (2 * (B / (A * A)));
}
public static function plot(x:Number, targetX:Number, targetY:Number):Number{
return (targetY * x * x) / (targetX * targetX);
}
Or, more explicit yet.
If your parabolic curve is
y(x)= A x2+ B x + C (Eq 1)
and your line is
y(x) = m x + b (Eq 2)
The two possible solutions (+ and -) for x are
x = ((-B + m +- Sqrt[4 A b + B^2 - 4 A C - 2 B m + m^2])/(2 A)) (Eq 3)
You should check if your segment endpoints (in x) contains any of these two points. If they do, just replace the corresponding x in the y=m x + b equation to get the y coordinate for the intersection
Edit>
To get the last equation you just say that the "y" in eq 1 is equal to the "y" in eq 2 (because you are looking for an intersection!).
That gives you:
A x2+ B x + C = m x + b
and regrouping
A x2+ (B-m) x + (C-b) = 0
Which is a quadratic equation.
Equation 3 are just the two possible solutions for this quadratic.
Edit 2>
re-reading your code, it seems that your parabola is defined by
y(x) = A x2
where
A = (target.y / (target.x)2)
So in your case Eq 3 becomes simply
x = ((m +- Sqrt[4 A b + m^2])/(2 A)) (Eq 3b)
HTH!
Take the equation for the curve and put your line into y = mx +b form. Solve for x and then determine if X is between your your start and end points for you line segment.
Check out: http://mathcentral.uregina.ca/QQ/database/QQ.09.03/senthil1.html
Are you doing this often enough to desire a separate test to see if an intersection exists before actually computing the intersection point? If so, consider the fact that your parabola is a level set for the function f(x, y) = y - (B * x * x) / (A * A) -- specifically, the one for which f(x, y) = 0. Plug your two endpoints into f(x,y) -- if they have the same sign, they're on the same side of the parabola, while if they have different signs, they're on different sides of the parabola.
Now, you still might have a segment that intersects the parabola twice, and this test doesn't catch that. But something about the way you're defining the problem makes me feel that maybe that's OK for your application.
In other words, you need to calulate the equation for each line segment y = Ax + B compare it to curve equation y = Cx^2 + Dx + E so Ax + B - Cx^2 - Dx - E = 0 and see if there is a solution between startX and endX values.
Is there an algorithm that can calculate the digits of a repeating-decimal ratio without starting at the beginning?
I'm looking for a solution that doesn't use arbitrarily sized integers, since this should work for cases where the decimal expansion may be arbitrarily long.
For example, 33/59 expands to a repeating decimal with 58 digits. If I wanted to verify that, how could I calculate the digits starting at the 58th place?
Edited - with the ratio 2124679 / 2147483647, how to get the hundred digits in the 2147484600th through 2147484700th places.
OK, 3rd try's a charm :)
I can't believe I forgot about modular exponentiation.
So to steal/summarize from my 2nd answer, the nth digit of x/y is the 1st digit of (10n-1x mod y)/y = floor(10 * (10n-1x mod y) / y) mod 10.
The part that takes all the time is the 10n-1 mod y, but we can do that with fast (O(log n)) modular exponentiation. With this in place, it's not worth trying to do the cycle-finding algorithm.
However, you do need the ability to do (a * b mod y) where a and b are numbers that may be as large as y. (if y requires 32 bits, then you need to do 32x32 multiply and then 64-bit % 32-bit modulus, or you need an algorithm that circumvents this limitation. See my listing that follows, since I ran into this limitation with Javascript.)
So here's a new version.
function abmody(a,b,y)
{
var x = 0;
// binary fun here
while (a > 0)
{
if (a & 1)
x = (x + b) % y;
b = (2 * b) % y;
a >>>= 1;
}
return x;
}
function digits2(x,y,n1,n2)
{
// the nth digit of x/y = floor(10 * (10^(n-1)*x mod y) / y) mod 10.
var m = n1-1;
var A = 1, B = 10;
while (m > 0)
{
// loop invariant: 10^(n1-1) = A*(B^m) mod y
if (m & 1)
{
// A = (A * B) % y but javascript doesn't have enough sig. digits
A = abmody(A,B,y);
}
// B = (B * B) % y but javascript doesn't have enough sig. digits
B = abmody(B,B,y);
m >>>= 1;
}
x = x % y;
// A = (A * x) % y;
A = abmody(A,x,y);
var answer = "";
for (var i = n1; i <= n2; ++i)
{
var digit = Math.floor(10*A/y)%10;
answer += digit;
A = (A * 10) % y;
}
return answer;
}
(You'll note that the structures of abmody() and the modular exponentiation are the same; both are based on Russian peasant multiplication.)
And results:
js>digits2(2124679,214748367,214748300,214748400)
20513882650385881630475914166090026658968726872786883636698387559799232373208220950057329190307649696
js>digits2(122222,990000,100,110)
65656565656
js>digits2(1,7,1,7)
1428571
js>digits2(1,7,601,607)
1428571
js>digits2(2124679,2147483647,2147484600,2147484700)
04837181235122113132440537741612893408915444001981729642479554583541841517920532039329657349423345806
edit: (I'm leaving post here for posterity. But please don't upvote it anymore: it may be theoretically useful but it's not really practical. I have posted another answer which is much more useful from a practical point of view, doesn't require any factoring, and doesn't require the use of bignums.)
#Daniel Bruckner has the right approach, I think. (with a few additional twists required)
Maybe there's a simpler method, but the following will always work:
Let's use the examples q = x/y = 33/57820 and 44/65 in addition to 33/59, for reasons that may become clear shortly.
Step 1: Factor the denominator (specifically factor out 2's and 5's)
Write q = x/y = x/(2a25a5z). Factors of 2 and 5 in the denominator do not cause repeated decimals. So the remaining factor z is coprime to 10. In fact, the next step requires factoring z, so you might as well factor the whole thing.
Calculate a10 = max(a2, a5) which is the smallest exponent of 10 that is a multiple of the factors of 2 and 5 in y.
In our example 57820 = 2 * 2 * 5 * 7 * 7 * 59, so a2 = 2, a5 = 1, a10 = 2, z = 7 * 7 * 59 = 2891.
In our example 33/59, 59 is a prime and contains no factors of 2 or 5, so a2 = a5 = a10 = 0.
In our example 44/65, 65 = 5*13, and a2 = 0, a5 = a10 = 1.
Just for reference I found a good online factoring calculator here. (even does totients which is important for the next step)
Step 2: Use Euler's Theorem or Carmichael's Theorem.
What we want is a number n such that 10n - 1 is divisible by z, or in other words, 10n ≡ 1 mod z. Euler's function φ(z) and Carmichael's function λ(z) will both give you valid values for n, with λ(z) giving you the smaller number and φ(z) being perhaps a little easier to calculate. This isn't too hard, it just means factoring z and doing a little math.
φ(2891) = 7 * 6 * 58 = 2436
λ(2891) = lcm(7*6, 58) = 1218
This means that 102436 ≡ 101218 ≡ 1 (mod 2891).
For the simpler fraction 33/59, φ(59) = λ(59) = 58, so 1058 ≡ 1 (mod 59).
For 44/65 = 44/(5*13), φ(13) = λ(13) = 12.
So what? Well, the period of the repeating decimal must divide both φ(z) and λ(z), so they effectively give you upper bounds on the period of the repeating decimal.
Step 3: More number crunching
Let's use n = λ(z). If we subtract Q' = 10a10x/y from Q'' = 10(a10 + n)x/y, we get:
m = 10a10(10n - 1)x/y
which is an integer because 10a10 is a multiple of the factors of 2 and 5 of y, and 10n-1 is a multiple of the remaining factors of y.
What we've done here is to shift left the original number q by a10 places to get Q', and shift left q by a10 + n places to get Q'', which are repeating decimals, but the difference between them is an integer we can calculate.
Then we can rewrite x/y as m / 10a10 / (10n - 1).
Consider the example q = 44/65 = 44/(5*13)
a10 = 1, and λ(13) = 12, so Q' = 101q and Q'' = 1012+1q.
m = Q'' - Q' = (1012 - 1) * 101 * (44/65) = 153846153846*44 = 6769230769224
so q = 6769230769224 / 10 / (1012 - 1).
The other fractions 33/57820 and 33/59 lead to larger fractions.
Step 4: Find the nonrepeating and repeating decimal parts.
Notice that for k between 1 and 9, k/9 = 0.kkkkkkkkkkkkk...
Similarly note that a 2-digit number kl between 1 and 99, k/99 = 0.klklklklklkl...
This generalizes: for k-digit patterns abc...ij, this number abc...ij/(10k-1) = 0.abc...ijabc...ijabc...ij...
If you follow the pattern, you'll see that what we have to do is to take this (potentially) huge integer m we got in the previous step, and write it as m = s*(10n-1) + r, where 1 ≤ r < 10n-1.
This leads to the final answer:
s is the non-repeating part
r is the repeating part (zero-padded on the left if necessary to ensure that it is n digits)
with a10 =
0, the decimal point is between the
nonrepeating and repeating part; if
a10 > 0 then it is located
a10 places to the left of
the junction between s and r.
For 44/65, we get 6769230769224 = 6 * (1012-1) + 769230769230
s = 6, r = 769230769230, and 44/65 = 0.6769230769230 where the underline here designates the repeated part.
You can make the numbers smaller by finding the smallest value of n in step 2, by starting with the Carmichael function λ(z) and seeing if any of its factors lead to values of n such that 10n ≡ 1 (mod z).
update: For the curious, the Python interpeter seems to be the easiest way to calculate with bignums. (pow(x,y) calculates xy, and // and % are integer division and remainder, respectively.) Here's an example:
>>> N = pow(10,12)-1
>>> m = N*pow(10,1)*44//65
>>> m
6769230769224
>>> r=m%N
>>> r
769230769230
>>> s=m//N
>>> s
6
>>> 44/65
0.67692307692307696
>>> N = pow(10,58)-1
>>> m=N*33//59
>>> m
5593220338983050847457627118644067796610169491525423728813
>>> r=m%N
>>> r
5593220338983050847457627118644067796610169491525423728813
>>> s=m//N
>>> s
0
>>> 33/59
0.55932203389830504
>>> N = pow(10,1218)-1
>>> m = N*pow(10,2)*33//57820
>>> m
57073676928398478035281909373919059149083362158422691110342442061570390868211691
45624351435489450017295053614666205465236942234520927014873746108612936700103770
32168799723279142165340712556208924247665167762020062262193012798339674852992044
27533725354548599100657212037357315807679003804911795226565202352127291594603943
27222414389484607402282947077135939121411276374956762365963334486336907644413697
68246281563472846765824974057419578000691802144586648218609477689380837080594949
84434451746800415081286751988931165686613628502248356969906606710480802490487720
51193358699411968177101349014181943964026288481494292632307160152196471809062608
09408509166378415773088896575579384296091317883085437564856451054998270494638533
37945347630577654790729851262538913870632998962296783120027672085783465928744379
10757523348322379799377378069872016603251470079557246627464545140089934278796264
26841923209961950882047734347976478727084053960567277758561051539259771705292286
40608785887236250432376340366655136630923555863023175371843652715323417502594258
04219993081978554133517813905223106191629194050501556554825319958491871324801106
88343133863714977516430300933932895191975095122794880664130058803182289865098581
80560359737115185
>>> r=m%N
>>> r
57073676928398478035281909373919059149083362158422691110342442061570390868211691
45624351435489450017295053614666205465236942234520927014873746108612936700103770
32168799723279142165340712556208924247665167762020062262193012798339674852992044
27533725354548599100657212037357315807679003804911795226565202352127291594603943
27222414389484607402282947077135939121411276374956762365963334486336907644413697
68246281563472846765824974057419578000691802144586648218609477689380837080594949
84434451746800415081286751988931165686613628502248356969906606710480802490487720
51193358699411968177101349014181943964026288481494292632307160152196471809062608
09408509166378415773088896575579384296091317883085437564856451054998270494638533
37945347630577654790729851262538913870632998962296783120027672085783465928744379
10757523348322379799377378069872016603251470079557246627464545140089934278796264
26841923209961950882047734347976478727084053960567277758561051539259771705292286
40608785887236250432376340366655136630923555863023175371843652715323417502594258
04219993081978554133517813905223106191629194050501556554825319958491871324801106
88343133863714977516430300933932895191975095122794880664130058803182289865098581
80560359737115185
>>> s=m//N
>>> s
0
>>> 33/57820
0.00057073676928398479
with the overloaded Python % string operator usable for zero-padding, to see the full set of repeated digits:
>>> "%01218d" % r
'0570736769283984780352819093739190591490833621584226911103424420615703908682116
91456243514354894500172950536146662054652369422345209270148737461086129367001037
70321687997232791421653407125562089242476651677620200622621930127983396748529920
44275337253545485991006572120373573158076790038049117952265652023521272915946039
43272224143894846074022829470771359391214112763749567623659633344863369076444136
97682462815634728467658249740574195780006918021445866482186094776893808370805949
49844344517468004150812867519889311656866136285022483569699066067104808024904877
20511933586994119681771013490141819439640262884814942926323071601521964718090626
08094085091663784157730888965755793842960913178830854375648564510549982704946385
33379453476305776547907298512625389138706329989622967831200276720857834659287443
79107575233483223797993773780698720166032514700795572466274645451400899342787962
64268419232099619508820477343479764787270840539605672777585610515392597717052922
86406087858872362504323763403666551366309235558630231753718436527153234175025942
58042199930819785541335178139052231061916291940505015565548253199584918713248011
06883431338637149775164303009339328951919750951227948806641300588031822898650985
8180560359737115185'
As a general technique, rational fractions have a non-repeating part followed by a repeating part, like this:
nnn.xxxxxxxxrrrrrr
xxxxxxxx is the nonrepeating part and rrrrrr is the repeating part.
Determine the length of the nonrepeating part.
If the digit in question is in the nonrepeating part, then calculate it directly using division.
If the digit in question is in the repeating part, calculate its position within the repeating sequence (you now know the lengths of everything), and pick out the correct digit.
The above is a rough outline and would need more precision to implement in an actual algorithm, but it should get you started.
AHA! caffiend: your comment to my other (longer) answer (specifically "duplicate remainders") leads me to a very simple solution that is O(n) where n = the sum of the lengths of the nonrepeating + repeating parts, and requires only integer math with numbers between 0 and 10*y where y is the denominator.
Here's a Javascript function to get the nth digit to the right of the decimal point for the rational number x/y:
function digit(x,y,n)
{
if (n == 0)
return Math.floor(x/y)%10;
return digit(10*(x%y),y,n-1);
}
It's recursive rather than iterative, and is not smart enough to detect cycles (the 10000th digit of 1/3 is obviously 3, but this keeps on going until it reaches the 10000th iteration), but it works at least until the stack runs out of memory.
Basically this works because of two facts:
the nth digit of x/y is the (n-1)th digit of 10x/y (example: the 6th digit of 1/7 is the 5th digit of 10/7 is the 4th digit of 100/7 etc.)
the nth digit of x/y is the nth digit of (x%y)/y (example: the 5th digit of 10/7 is also the 5th digit of 3/7)
We can tweak this to be an iterative routine and combine it with Floyd's cycle-finding algorithm (which I learned as the "rho" method from a Martin Gardner column) to get something that shortcuts this approach.
Here's a javascript function that computes a solution with this approach:
function digit(x,y,n,returnstruct)
{
function kernel(x,y) { return 10*(x%y); }
var period = 0;
var x1 = x;
var x2 = x;
var i = 0;
while (n > 0)
{
n--;
i++;
x1 = kernel(x1,y); // iterate once
x2 = kernel(x2,y);
x2 = kernel(x2,y); // iterate twice
// have both 1x and 2x iterations reached the same state?
if (x1 == x2)
{
period = i;
n = n % period;
i = 0;
// start again in case the nonrepeating part gave us a
// multiple of the period rather than the period itself
}
}
var answer=Math.floor(x1/y);
if (returnstruct)
return {period: period, digit: answer,
toString: function()
{
return 'period='+this.period+',digit='+this.digit;
}};
else
return answer;
}
And an example of running the nth digit of 1/700:
js>1/700
0.0014285714285714286
js>n=10000000
10000000
js>rs=digit(1,700,n,true)
period=6,digit=4
js>n%6
4
js>rs=digit(1,700,4,true)
period=0,digit=4
Same thing for 33/59:
js>33/59
0.559322033898305
js>rs=digit(33,59,3,true)
period=0,digit=9
js>rs=digit(33,59,61,true)
period=58,digit=9
js>rs=digit(33,59,61+58,true)
period=58,digit=9
And 122222/990000 (long nonrepeating part):
js>122222/990000
0.12345656565656565
js>digit(122222,990000,5,true)
period=0,digit=5
js>digit(122222,990000,7,true)
period=6,digit=5
js>digit(122222,990000,9,true)
period=2,digit=5
js>digit(122222,990000,9999,true)
period=2,digit=5
js>digit(122222,990000,10000,true)
period=2,digit=6
Here's another function that finds a stretch of digits:
// find digits n1 through n2 of x/y
function digits(x,y,n1,n2,returnstruct)
{
function kernel(x,y) { return 10*(x%y); }
var period = 0;
var x1 = x;
var x2 = x;
var i = 0;
var answer='';
while (n2 >= 0)
{
// time to print out digits?
if (n1 <= 0)
answer = answer + Math.floor(x1/y);
n1--,n2--;
i++;
x1 = kernel(x1,y); // iterate once
x2 = kernel(x2,y);
x2 = kernel(x2,y); // iterate twice
// have both 1x and 2x iterations reached the same state?
if (x1 == x2)
{
period = i;
if (n1 > period)
{
var jumpahead = n1 - (n1 % period);
n1 -= jumpahead, n2 -= jumpahead;
}
i = 0;
// start again in case the nonrepeating part gave us a
// multiple of the period rather than the period itself
}
}
if (returnstruct)
return {period: period, digits: answer,
toString: function()
{
return 'period='+this.period+',digits='+this.digits;
}};
else
return answer;
}
I've included the results for your answer (assuming that Javascript #'s didn't overflow):
js>digit(1,7,1,7,true)
period=6,digits=1428571
js>digit(1,7,601,607,true)
period=6,digits=1428571
js>1/7
0.14285714285714285
js>digit(2124679,214748367,214748300,214748400,true)
period=1759780,digits=20513882650385881630475914166090026658968726872786883636698387559799232373208220950057329190307649696
js>digit(122222,990000,100,110,true)
period=2,digits=65656565656
Ad hoc I have no good idea. Maybe continued fractions can help. I am going to think a bit about it ...
UPDATE
From Fermat's little theorem and because 39 is prime the following holds. (= indicates congruence)
10^39 = 10 (39)
Because 10 is coprime to 39.
10^(39 - 1) = 1 (39)
10^38 - 1 = 0 (39)
[to be continued tomorow]
I was to tiered to recognize that 39 is not prime ... ^^ I am going to update and the answer in the next days and present the whole idea. Thanks for noting that 39 is not prime.
The short answer for a/b with a < b and an assumed period length p ...
calculate k = (10^p - 1) / b and verify that it is an integer, else a/b has not a period of p
calculate c = k * a
convert c to its decimal represenation and left pad it with zeros to a total length of p
the i-th digit after the decimal point is the (i mod p)-th digit of the paded decimal representation (i = 0 is the first digit after the decimal point - we are developers)
Example
a = 3
b = 7
p = 6
k = (10^6 - 1) / 7
= 142,857
c = 142,857 * 3
= 428,571
Padding is not required and we conclude.
3 ______
- = 0.428571
7