Bill Allombert on Sun, 31 Oct 1999 13:35:35 +0100 (MET)


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Euclidian division and Off-topic question.


I do not know what is the euclidean quotient of two rational.

Perhaps (a/b)\(c/d)=ad\bc ?

Or perhaps we must divide by gcd(b,d) ?

Do you know an use for this operation ?

>Off-topic question:  I guess most readers here don't know what the
>allusion to Blaise Pascal was about;  could you elaborate?

If it was an UNIX mailing-list I would simply answer RTFM, but as it
is not, I will quote the manual of gp (in doc/gp.1) which is normaly
readable by typing "man gp" in a shell.

TRIVIA
...
PARI has nothing to do with the French capital. The name just stuck when
the authors started to implement the system in Pascal (they quickly
switched to C).

For the benefit of non-native French speakers, here's a slightly expanded
explanation:
  Blaise Pascal
(1623-1662) was a famous French mathematician and philosopher who was one
of the founders of probability and devised one of the first "arithmetic
machines". He once proposed the following "proof" of the existence of God
for the unbelievers: whether He exists or not I lose nothing by believing
in Him, whereas if He does and I misbehave... This is the so-called "pari
de Pascal" (Pascal's bet).
...

Bill.