Fractional part

Revision as of 12:44, 29 June 2006 by JBL (talk | contribs)

The fractional part of a real number $x$, usually denoted $\{x\}$, is equvalent to removing the integer part of $x$. Thus $\{x\} = x - [x]$, where $[x]$ denotes the floor function. For positive numbers, this is equivalent to taking "everything after the decimal point," but this is not true in general for negative numbers. For example,

  • $\{3.14\} = 0.14$
  • $\{5\} = 0$
  • $\{-3.2\} = 0.8$

The fractional part function has the real numbers as its domain and the interval $[0, 1)$ as its range.


See Also