OFFSET
2,5
COMMENTS
Trivial cancellations are of the form xx/xx=x/x, e.g. 44/44 = 4/4.
REFERENCES
Boas, R. P. "Anomalous Cancellation," Ch. 6 in Mathematical Plums (Ed. R. Honsberger). Washington, DC: Math. Assoc. Amer., pp. 113-129, 1979.
LINKS
Ludovic Schwob, Table of n, a(n) for n = 2..1000
R. P. Boas, Anomalous Cancellation, The Two Year College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Autumn 1972), 21-24.
Eric Weisstein's World of Mathematics, Anomalous Cancellation.
FORMULA
From Ludovic Schwob, Nov 10 2020: (Start)
a(n)=0 if and only if n is prime.
a(n) is odd if and only if n is an even square. (End)
EXAMPLE
a(10) = 4 because we have the four nontrivial base-10 cancellations 64/16 = 4/1, 65/26 = 5/2, 95/19 = 5/1, 98/49 = 8/4.
MATHEMATICA
a[n_]:= Length[(DeleteCases[ #1, {u_, u_, u_}] & )[ Position[Table[(n*x + y)/(n*z + x) == y/z, {x, 1, n - 1}, {y, 1, x - 1}, {z, 1, y - 1}], True]]]
CROSSREFS
KEYWORD
nonn,base
AUTHOR
Rick Mabry (rmabry(AT)pilot.lsus.edu), Jun 16 2004
STATUS
approved