# Rational numbers and periodic decimal representation

I'm trying to prove that a number is rational if and only if it has an eventually periodic decimal expansion. One part is simple; without loss of generality we consider $q=0.\overline{d_1\dots d_k},$ set $p=d_1\dots d_k$ so $$q=\sum\limits_{n=1}^{\infty}\frac{p}{10^{kn}}=\frac{p}{10^k-1}\in\mathbb{Q}.$$ To prove the converse, I have been given the hint to apply the pigeonhole principle. Can someone give some suggestions (or just post the answer if you like; it's not homework) because I'm not too familiar or confident in using the pigeonhole principle, even though I feel like it might be some simple trick I don't see right now.

Thanks.

-
How about $$\frac1{2^a 5^b}?$$ Is it periodic & rational ? – lab bhattacharjee Aug 14 '14 at 8:43
You should probably say something like "eventually periodic". I think this is what @labbhattacharjee is referring to. – MPW Aug 14 '14 at 8:50

To see that every rational has an eventually repeating decimal representation, suppose the rational is $\pm a/b$ with $a\geq 0$ and $b>1$ (we may exclude $b=1$ since then $a/b$ is integral and so has a decimal representation ending in a repeating string of zeroes already). Then just perform long division of $a$ by $b$. At each successive step in the long division, you either get a remainder of $0$ (and you are done, the decimal representation ends in a repeating string of zeroes), or you get a positive integral remainder which must lie in $\{1,\ldots,b-1\}$. There are at most $b-1$ possible distinct remainders, so by the $b^{\textrm{th}}$ successive step you must have a repeated remainder; the sequences of successive remainders must then repeat those previously encountered since the repeat, in order, producing the same sequence of generated digits in the quotient as desired.
Let $q=\dfrac{a}{b}\in\mathbb Q$ be given. Suppose this rational has decimal expansion $$q=\frac{a}{b}=c.d_1d_2...$$ Then we have more generally that $$10^kq=c_k.d_{k+1}d_{k+2}...$$ where $10^ka=bc_k+r_k$ and $r_k\in\{0,1,...,b-1\}$ is the remainder after the division $10^ka/b$. Therefore $$\frac{r_k}{b}=0.d_{k+1}d_{k+2}...$$ Now since $r_k$ can only assume finitely many values (this is essentially the apllying pigeonhole principle) the remainder and thus the decimal expansion will eventually repeat itself so that $r_k=r_m$ for some $k<m$. Thus $$0.d_{k+1}d_{k+2}...=0.d_{m+1}d_{m+2}...$$ showing that the decimal expansion is periodic with period $m-k$.