Simplify an equation with a floor function

ceiling-and-floor-functions

This might seem like a dumb post, but I've never worked with floor/ceiling functions before.

How would we simplify $\dfrac{\left\lfloor{x}\right\rfloor \left\lfloor{x+1}\right\rfloor}{10100} – \dfrac{\left\lfloor{x-1}\right\rfloor \left\lfloor{x}\right\rfloor}{10100}$?

$x$ is a positive integer if that helps, and in that case it seems like we can just ignore the floor functions or am I missing something.

Best Answer

Note that $\lfloor x\pm k\rfloor=\lfloor x\rfloor\pm k$ for any integer $k$. Hence $$ \frac{\lfloor x\rfloor\lfloor x+1\rfloor}{10100}-\frac{\lfloor x\rfloor\lfloor x-1\rfloor}{10100} =\frac{\lfloor x\rfloor(\lfloor x\rfloor+1)}{10100}-\frac{\lfloor x\rfloor(\lfloor x\rfloor-1)}{10100} =\frac{2\lfloor x\rfloor}{10100} =\frac{\lfloor x\rfloor}{5050} $$ If furthermore $x$ is itself an integer, this simplifies to $x/5050$.

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