In mathematics, the Farey sequence of order n is the sequence of completely reduced fractions between 0 and 1 which, when in lowest terms, have denominators less than or equal to n, arranged in order of increasing size.

Each Farey sequence starts with the value 0, denoted by the fraction ⁰⁄₁, and ends with the value 1, denoted by the fraction ¹⁄₁ (although some authors omit these terms).

A Farey sequence is sometimes called a Farey series, which is not strictly correct, because the terms are not summed.

Examples

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The Farey sequences of orders 1 to 8 are :

F₁ = {⁰⁄₁, ¹⁄₁}

F₂ = {⁰⁄₁, ¹⁄₂, ¹⁄₁}

F₃ = {⁰⁄₁, ¹⁄₃, ¹⁄₂, ²⁄₃, ¹⁄₁}

F₄ = {⁰⁄₁, ¹⁄₄, ¹⁄₃, ¹⁄₂, ²⁄₃, ³⁄₄, ¹⁄₁}

F₅ = {⁰⁄₁, ¹⁄₅, ¹⁄₄, ¹⁄₃, ²⁄₅, ¹⁄₂, ³⁄₅, ²⁄₃, ³⁄₄, ⁴⁄₅, ¹⁄₁}

F₆ = {⁰⁄₁, ¹⁄₆, ¹⁄₅, ¹⁄₄, ¹⁄₃, ²⁄₅, ¹⁄₂, ³⁄₅, ²⁄₃, ³⁄₄, ⁴⁄₅, ⁵⁄₆, ¹⁄₁}

F₇ = {⁰⁄₁, ¹⁄₇, ¹⁄₆, ¹⁄₅, ¹⁄₄, ²⁄₇, ¹⁄₃, ²⁄₅, ³⁄₇, ¹⁄₂, ⁴⁄₇, ³⁄₅, ²⁄₃, ⁵⁄₇, ³⁄₄, ⁴⁄₅, ⁵⁄₆, ⁶⁄₇, ¹⁄₁}

F₈ = {⁰⁄₁, ¹⁄₈, ¹⁄₇, ¹⁄₆, ¹⁄₅, ¹⁄₄, ²⁄₇, ¹⁄₃, ³⁄₈, ²⁄₅, ³⁄₇, ¹⁄₂, ⁴⁄₇, ³⁄₅, ⁵⁄₈, ²⁄₃, ⁵⁄₇, ³⁄₄, ⁴⁄₅, ⁵⁄₆, ⁶⁄₇, ⁷⁄₈, ¹⁄₁}

History

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The history of 'Farey series' is very curious — Hardy & Wright (1979) Chapter IIIHardy, G.H. & Wright, E.M. (1979) An Introduction to the Theory of Numbers (Fifth Edition). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198531710

... once again the man whose name was given to a mathematical relation was not the original discoverer so far as the records go. — Beiler (1964) Chapter XVIBeiler, Albert H. (1964) Recreations in the Theory of Numbers (Second Edition). Dover. ISBN 0486210960

Farey sequences are named after the British geologist John Farey, Sr., whose letter about these sequences was published in the Philosophical Magazine in 1816. Farey conjectured that each term in a Farey sequence is the mediant of its neighbours — however, so far as is known, he did not prove this property. Farey's letter was read by Cauchy, who provided a proof in his Exercises de mathématique, and attributed this result to Farey. In fact, another mathematician, C. Haros, had published similar results in 1802 which were almost certainly not known either to Farey or to Cauchy. Thus it was a historical accident that linked Farey's name with these sequences.

Properties

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Sequence length

The Farey sequence of order n contains all of the members of the Farey sequences of lower orders. In particular F_n contains all of the members of F_n−1, and also contains an additional fraction for each number that is less than n and coprime to n. Thus F₆ consists of F₅ together with the fractions ¹⁄₆ and ⁵⁄₆. The middle term of a Farey sequence F_n is always ¹⁄₂, for n > 1.

From this, we can relate the lengths of F_n and F_n−1 using Euler's totient function φ(n) :-

$|F\_n|\; =\; |F\_\{n-1\}|\; +\; \backslash varphi(n)$

Using the fact that |F₁| = 2, we can derive an expression for the length of F_n :-

$|F\_n|\; =\; 1\; +\; \backslash sum\_\{m=1\}^n\; \backslash varphi(m)$

The asymptotic behaviour of |F_n| is :-

$|F\_n|\; \backslash sim\; \backslash frac\; \{3n^2\}\{\backslash pi^2\}$

Farey neighbours

Fractions which are neighbouring terms in a Farey sequence have the following properties.

If ^a⁄_b and ^c⁄_d are neighbours in a Farey sequence, with ^a⁄_b < ^c⁄_d, then their difference ^c⁄_d − ^a⁄_b is equal to ¹⁄_bd. Since

$\backslash frac\{c\}\{d\}\; -\; \backslash frac\{a\}\{b\}\; =\; \backslash frac\{bc\; -\; ad\}\{bd\}$,

this is equivalent to saying that

bc − ad = 1.

Thus ¹⁄₃ and ²⁄₅ are neighbours in F₅, and their difference is ¹⁄₁₅.

The converse is also true. If

bc − ad = 1

for positive integers a,b,c and d with a < b and c < d then ^a⁄_b and ^c⁄_d will be neighbours in the Farey sequence of order max(b,d).

If ^p⁄_q has neighbours ^a⁄_b and ^c⁄_d in some Farey sequence, with

^a⁄_b < ^p⁄_q < ^c⁄_d

then ^p⁄_q is the mediant of ^a⁄_b and ^c⁄_d — in other words,

$\backslash frac\{p\}\{q\}\; =\; \backslash frac\{a\; +\; c\}\{b\; +\; d\}$.

And if ^a⁄_b and ^c⁄_d are neighbours in a Farey sequence then the first term that appears between them as the order of the Farey sequence is increased is

$\backslash frac\{a+c\}\{b+d\}$,

which first appears in the Farey sequence of order b + d.

Thus the first term to appear between ¹⁄₃ and ²⁄₅ is ³⁄₈, which appears in F₈.

The Stern-Brocot tree is a data structure showing how the sequence is built up from 0 (= ⁰⁄₁) and 1 (= ¹⁄₁), by taking successive mediants.

Fractions that appear as neighbours in a Farey sequence have closely related continued fraction expansions. Every fraction has two continued fraction expansions - in one the final term is 1; in the other the final term is greater than 1. If ^p⁄_q, which first appears in Farey sequence F_q, has continued fraction expansions

a₁, a₂, …, a_{n − 1}, a_n, 1

a₁, a₂, …, a_{n − 1}, a_n + 1

then the nearest neighbour of ^p⁄_q in F_q (which will be its neighbour with the larger denominator) has a continued fraction expansion

a₁, a₂, …, a_n

and its other neighbour has a continued fraction expansion

a₁, a₂, …, a_{n − 1}

Thus ³⁄₈ has the two continued fraction expansions 2, 1, 1, 1 and 2, 1, 2, and its neighbours in F₈ are ²⁄₅, which can be expanded as 2, 1, 1; and ¹⁄₃, which can be expanded as 2, 1.

Ford circles

There is an interesting connection between Farey sequence and Ford circles.

For every fraction p/q (in its lowest terms) there is a Ford circle Cwhich is the circle with radius 1/(2q²) and centre at (p/q, 1/(2q²)). Two Ford circles for different fractions are either disjoint or they are tangent to one another - two Ford circles never intersect. If 0 < p/q < 1 then the Ford circles that are tangent to C[p/q are precisely the Ford circles for fractions that are neighbours of p/q in some Farey sequence.

Thus Cis tangent to C^*," target="_blank" >C^* etc.

References

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External links

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• Farey series at cut-the-knot
• Stern-Brocot Tree at cut-the-knot
• MathWorld page on Stern-Brocot trees
• The Minkowski Question Mark and the Modular Group SL(2,Z) reviews the isomorphisms of the Stern-Brocot Tree.
• Symmetries of Period-Doubling Maps reviews connections between Farey Fractions and Fractals.

Fractions | Number theory | Sequences

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