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Number theory Difficulty 6.6 National olympiad Find the answer

Example 2 Find the periodic continued fraction of ξ0=(14+1)/2\xi_{0}=(\sqrt{14}+1) / 2.

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Solution

We solve according to the method of Theorem 6, which requires finding the smallest k>h0k>h \geqslant 0 such that ξh=ξk\xi_{h} = \xi_{k}, i.e., equation (24) holds. To satisfy condition (16), ξ0\xi_{0} should be expressed as
ξ0=(56+2)/4,d=56c0=2,q0=4,a0=[ξ0]=2\begin{array}{c} \xi_{0}=(\sqrt{56}+2) / 4, \quad d=56 \\ c_{0}=2, \quad q_{0}=4, \quad a_{0}=\left[\xi_{0}\right]=2 \end{array}

Now, we use the recursive formulas (22) and (23) to find cj,qj,ξj,ajc_{j}, q_{j}, \xi_{j}, a_{j}:
c0=2,q0=4,ξ0=(56+2)/4,a0=2;c1=242=6,q1=(5662)/4=5,ξ1=(56+6)/5,a1=2;c2=256=4,q2=(5642)/5=8,ξ2=(56+4)/8,a2=1;c3=184=4,q3=(5642)/8=5,ξ3=(56+4)/5,a3=2;c4=254=6,q4=(5662)/5=4,ξ4=(56+6)/4,a4=3;c5=346=6,q5=(5662)/4=5,ξ5=(56+6)/5,a5=2.\begin{array}{ll} c_{0}=2, & q_{0}=4, \\ \xi_{0}=(\sqrt{56}+2) / 4, & a_{0}=2 ; \\ c_{1}=2 \cdot 4-2=6, & q_{1}=\left(56-6^{2}\right) / 4=5, \\ \xi_{1}=(\sqrt{56}+6) / 5, & a_{1}=2 ; \\ c_{2}=2 \cdot 5-6=4, & q_{2}=\left(56-4^{2}\right) / 5=8, \\ \xi_{2}=(\sqrt{56}+4) / 8, & a_{2}=1 ; \\ c_{3}=1 \cdot 8-4=4, & q_{3}=\left(56-4^{2}\right) / 8=5, \\ \xi_{3}=(\sqrt{56}+4) / 5, & a_{3}=2 ; \\ c_{4}=2 \cdot 5-4=6, & q_{4}=\left(56-6^{2}\right) / 5=4, \\ \xi_{4}=(\sqrt{56}+6) / 4, & a_{4}=3 ; \\ c_{5}=3 \cdot 4-6=6, & q_{5}=\left(56-6^{2}\right) / 4=5, \\ \xi_{5}=(\sqrt{56}+6) / 5, & a_{5}=2 . \end{array}

This gives the smallest values h=1,k=5h=1, k=5 such that ξk=ξh\xi_{k}=\xi_{h}, thus we obtain
ξ0=(14+1)/2=2,2,1,2,3.\xi_{0}=(\sqrt{14}+1) / 2=\langle 2, \overline{2,1,2,3}\rangle .

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Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.