Related papers: Re$^3$counting the rationals

We introduce a collection of polynomials $F_N$, associated to each positive integer $N$, whose divisibility properties yield a reformulation of the Goldbach conjecture. While this reformulation certainly does not lead to a resolution of the…

In this paper, we investigate the representations of rational numbers via continued fraction, Egyptian fraction, and Engel fraction expansions. Given $m \in \mathbb{N}$, denote by $C_m, E_m, E_m^*$ the sets of rational numbers whose…

In this study, we explore a novel approach to demonstrate the countability of rational numbers and illustrate the relationship between the Calkin-Wilf tree and the Stern-Brocot tree in a more intuitive manner. By employing a growth pattern…

Rationals are known to form interesting and computationally rich structures, such as Farey sequences and infinite trees. Little attention is being paid to more general, systematic exposition of the basic properties of fractions as a set.…

A formalism is given to count integer and rational solutions to polynomial equations with rational coefficients. These polynomials $P(x)$ are parameterized by three integers, labeling an elliptic curve. The counting of the rational…

This paper is about counting the number of distinct (scattered) subwords occurring in a given word. More precisely, we consider the generalization of the Pascal triangle to binomial coefficients of words and the sequence $(S(n))_{n\ge 0}$…

The problem to decide whether a given rational function in several variables is positive, in the sense that all its Taylor coefficients are positive, goes back to Szeg\H{o} as well as Askey and Gasper, who inspired more recent work. It is…

Let $b>1$ be an odd positive integer and $k, l \in \mathbb{N}$. In this paper, we show that every positive rational number can be written as $\varphi(m^{2})/(\varphi(n^{2}))^{b}$ and $\varphi(k(m^{2}-1))/\varphi(ln^{2})$, where $m, n\in…

We study how well a real number can be approximated by sums of two or more rational numbers with denominators up to a certain size.

We give new proofs of three theorems of Stanley on generating functions for the integer points in rational cones. The first, Stanley's reciprocity theorem, relates the rational generating functions for the integer points in a cone K and for…

New (infinitely many) rational approximants to \zeta(3) proving its irrationality are given. The recurrence relations for the numerator and denominator of these approximants as well as their continued fraction expansions are obtained. A…

Let $n,p,k$ be three positive integers. We prove that the rational fractions of $q$: $${n \brack k}_{q} {}_3\phi_{2} [ . {matrix}q^{1-k},q^{-p},q^{p-n} q,q^{1-n} {matrix}| q;q^{k+1}]\quad\textrm{and}\quad q^{(n-p)p}\qbi{n}{k}{q} {}_3\phi_2[…

This short article is aimed at educators and teachers of mathematics.Its goal is simple and direct:to explore some of the basic/elementary properties of proper rational numbers.A proper rational number is a rational which is not an integer.…

A common question from students on the usual diagonalization proof for the uncountability of the set of real numbers is: when a representation of real numbers, such as the decimal expansions of real numbers, allows us to use the…

In 1984, K. Mahler asked how well elements in the Cantor middle third set can be approximated by rational numbers from that set, and by rational numbers outside of that set. We consider more general missing digit sets $C$ and construct…

Julia Robinson has given a first-order definition of the rational integers $\mathbb Z$ in the rational numbers $\mathbb Q$ by a formula $(\forall \exists \forall \exists)(F=0)$ where the $\forall$-quantifiers run over a total of 8…

We give explicit and asymptotic lower bounds for the quantity $|e^{s/t}-M/N|$ by studying a generalized continued fraction expansion of $e^{s/t}$. In cases $|s|\geq 3$ we improve existing results by extracting a large common factor from the…

A rational function $f(x)$ is rationally summable if there exists a rational function $g(x)$ such that $f(x)=g(x+1)-g(x)$. Detecting whether a given rational function is summable is an important and basic computational subproblem that…

In the literature, we have various ways of proving irrationality of a real number. In this survey article, we shall emphasize on a particular criterion to prove irrationality. This is called nice approximation of a number by a sequence of…

We present a comprehensive survey of constructions of the real numbers (from either the rationals or the integers) in a unified fashion, thus providing an overview of most (if not all) known constructions ranging from the earliest attempts…