[Math] Mixed repeating decimals

decimal-expansionfractions

How can be proven that a fraction having at the denominator a multiple of both 2 and 3 is transformed to a mixed repeating decimal number?

I thought to bring the denominator to the form of 99…900…0 and then write the numerator as
$$\overline{abc…xyz} – \overline{abc…}$$

But I have to prove that any number can be written that way.
Or maybe there is a different proof.

Best Answer

It suffices to prove the following statement: any non-mixed repeating decimal can be expressed as a fraction with denominator not divisible by $2$ or $5$.

Proof. Let $x$ be a real number with a non-mixed repeating decimal, given by $$ 0.\overline{x_1 x_2 x_3 \ldots x_n} $$ for some $n$ and digits $x_i$. Then let $$ A = 10^{n-1}x_1 + 10^{n-2} x_2 + \cdots + x_n < 10^n $$ so that \begin{align*} 10^nx = x_1 x_2 x_3 \ldots x_n.\overline{x_1 x_2 x_3 \ldots x_n} &= A + x \end{align*} Hence $$ x = \frac{A}{10^n - 1} \\ $$ and the denominator is not divisible by $2$ or $5$.