Request for "Decimal Period of 1/X in Base Y" program

[Albert Chan]

(03-01-2015 06:17 PM)Joe Horn (post 18) Wrote:  Uh oh. Running it after 12 ENTER 23 yields 22, but the correct answer for the period of 1/23 in base 12
(as returned by my URPL program above) is 11, as can be seen by actually writing 1/23 in base 12:

0.06316948421 06316948421 06316948421 06316948421 ...

Am I misunderstanding something here?

The code for order(a,n) were wrong. order(12,23) = 11, matching repeating decimals period.

GCD does 2 duties: satisfy order() co-prime arguments requirement, and to track where to put the "decimal" point.

Example, 1/360 to base 12

12/360 = 1/30
12/30 = 2/5
Stop further scaling since gcd(12,5) = 1

order(12,5) = 4
12^4-1 = 20735

2/5 = (20735*2/5) / 20735 = 8294/20735 = 4972/BBBB (base 12)

1/360 = 0.00 \(\overline{4972}\) (base 12)