It is possible to show that the square root of two can be expressed as an infinite continued fraction.
√ 2 = 1 + 1/(2 + 1/(2 + 1/(2 + ... ))) = 1.414213...
By expanding this for the first four iterations, we get:
1 + 1/2 = 3/2 = 1.5
1 + 1/(2 + 1/2) = 7/5 = 1.4
1 + 1/(2 + 1/(2 + 1/2)) = 17/12 = 1.41666...
1 + 1/(2 + 1/(2 + 1/(2 + 1/2))) = 41/29 = 1.41379...
The next three expansions are 99/70, 239/169, and 577/408, but the eighth expansion, 1393/985, is the first example where the number of digits in the numerator exceeds the number of digits in the denominator.
In the first one-thousand expansions, how many fractions contain a numerator with more digits than denominator?
In [1]:
num = den = 1.0
count = 0
for k in range(1000):
num, den = num+den*2, num+den
if num > 10:
if den < 10:
count += 1
num = num / 10
den = den / 10
print(count)
In [ ]: