Meaning of Egyptian fraction | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A representation of a rational number as a sum of distinct unit fractions.
2. A unit fraction.
   rare

Equivalents

Examples

“The fraction #92;frac#123;7#125;#123;10#125; can be written as the Egyptian fraction #92;frac#123;1#125;#123;2#125;#43;#92;frac#123;1#125;#123;5#125;.”

“The calculation of Mᴺ where both M and N are real numbers can be done by expressing N as the sum of an integer h and an Egyptian fraction 1#47;g#95;1#43;1#47;g#95;2#43;1#47;g#95;3#43;.... Then Mᴺ#61;Mʰ#92;sqrt#91;g#95;1#93;#123;M#125;#92;sqrt#91;g#95;2#93;#123;M#125;#92;sqrt#91;g#95;3#93;#123;M#125;... where each of the roots can be calculated by means of the Newton–Raphson method.”

“1995, C. Pomerance, A. Sárkőzy, Combinatorial number theory, R. L. Graham, M. Grötschel, L. Lovász (edtors), Handbook of Combinatorics, Elsevier (North-Holland), page 1014, However, a representation of r as a sum of distinct Egyptian fractions is certainly not unique and this fact leads to many questions.”

“In [27], Erdős also considers various questions relating to Egyptian fraction decompositions of #92;textstyle 1#61;#92;sumⁿ#95;#123;k#61;1#125;#92;frac#123;1#125;#123;x#95;k#125;.”

“The modern description of Egyptian fraction reckoning being "restricted" to unit fractions is obviously anachronistic (indeed, the Egyptian concept of fractions did not include a numerator, but from a historian's point of view this cannot be criticized on the basis that our modern fractions consist of denominator and numerator). Furthermore, this criticism does not do justice to the development of Egyptian fractions.”

CEFR level