Problem 3.4.

The continued fraction algorithm is related to anthyphairesis because n1, n2, n3, are the number of
squares of size r0, r1, r2, in a rectangle with height and width of a and r0 and n1, n2, n3, = q0, q1, q2,
a
from the Euclidean algorithm, if the fraction in question is :
r0
a=r 0 q0 +r 1 , r 0 =r 1 q1 +r 2 , r 1=r 2 q2 +r 3 ,

a 157
This can be illustrated with the previous exercise, where = . The Euclidean Algorithm is as
r 0 68
follows:
157=682+21, 68=213+5, 21=54+1, 5=15+0
Geometrically, this means that within a rectangle with sides 157 and 68, there fits 2 squares with sides
of 68, 3 with sides of 21, 4 with sides of 5, and 5 with sides of 1.

Looking closely at the top right corner: