Posted by T.Gracken on October 25, 2002 at 21:12:01:
In Reply to: What's going on here? ... posted by Joel on October 25, 2002 at 19:20:37:
You still don't get it...
remember the remainder is still applied to the divisor...
so when you use 5 as an x value, the problem reduces to the quotient + the remainder over the divisor... that is (in this case), the quotient + 6/4 which is "the quotient plus (1 and 1/2)".
so it may not be apparent that the remainder is 6 (since the denominator plays a part in this and you can't 'know' the denominator and reduce at first)
So quit trying to look at specific values. fractions are involved. and there are a million (or more) ways to write a fraction.