Thursday, October 30
Milner 317, 4:00 PM
Title: Continued fractions and the solution of Pell's equation
Abstract: As has been known for many centuries, the smallest x for which 61x^2 + 1 is a square is a number with nine digits. The method of finding this smallest solution that is most commonly used today is based on the use of continued fractions, which in turn is based on the Euclidean algorithm. The talk will explain a modification of this approach that is in many ways simpler and more direct.