*** Welcome to piglix ***

Rational number


In mathematics, a rational number is any number that can be expressed as the quotient or fraction p/q of two integers, a numerator p and a non-zero denominator q. Since q may be equal to 1, every integer is a rational number. The set of all rational numbers, often referred to as "the rationals", is usually denoted by a boldface Q (or blackboard bold , Unicode ℚ); it was thus denoted in 1895 by Giuseppe Peano after , Italian for "quotient".

The decimal expansion of a rational number always either terminates after a finite number of digits or begins to repeat the same finite sequence of digits over and over. Moreover, any repeating or terminating decimal represents a rational number. These statements hold true not just for base 10, but also for any other integer base (e.g. binary, hexadecimal).


...
Wikipedia

...