Comment by krackers
4 hours ago
(This works because x/9 = 0.xxxx..., xy/99 = 0.xyxyxy... and so on). And that is true intuitively because when you long divide in order to get a repeating pattern you need the remainder to be the same as what you started with. I.e if you long divide
0.n
-----
a| b.0
You need 10b - an = b which implies 9b = an. If a = 9 (i.e. your divisor is of the form 10^n - 1, then b=n and you not only have a repeating pattern but you repeat digits.
Or going the other way, if d = 10^n - 1 then [10 a = a (mod d)] so your remainders never change. And then note that
a * 10^n = a * (10^n - 1) + a
so your quotient is just `a` as well.
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