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PROJECT EULER · #0065

Convergents of e

Statement only · SolvedOriginal problem ↗

The square root of 2 can be written as an infinite continued fraction.

2=1+12+12+12+12+...

The infinite continued fraction can be written, 2=[1;(2)], (2) indicates that 2 repeats ad infinitum. In a similar way, 23=[4;(1,3,1,8)].

It turns out that the sequence of partial values of continued fractions for square roots provide the best rational approximations. Let us consider the convergents for 2.

1+12=321+12+12=751+12+12+12=17121+12+12+12+12=4129

Hence the sequence of the first ten convergents for 2 are:

1,32,75,1712,4129,9970,239169,577408,1393985,33632378,...

What is most surprising is that the important mathematical constant,

e=[2;1,2,1,1,4,1,1,6,1,...,1,2k,1,...]

The first ten terms in the sequence of convergents for e are:

2,3,83,114,197,8732,10639,19371,1264465,1457536,...

The sum of digits in the numerator of the 10th convergent is 1+4+5+7=17.

Find the sum of digits in the numerator of the 100th convergent of the continued fraction for e.

Write-up coming later

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