Representing Constructible Numbers in Python

Build Status:

The constructible module provides exact representation of constructible numbers in Python.

Python 2 and Python 3 are supported.

The constructible numbers are the smallest field containing the rational numbers, where the square root of any non-negative constructible number is constructible as well. The non-negative constructible numbers are the lengths which can be constructed from the unit length using only a compass and a straightedge.

Usage

Usually the sqrt function is enough to work with constructible numbers:

>>> from constructible import sqrt
>>> x = sqrt(2) + sqrt(3)
>>> print(x)
((0 + 1 * sqrt(2)) + (1 + 0 * sqrt(2)) * sqrt((3 + 0 * sqrt(2))))
>>> y = x*x
>>> print(y)
((5 + 0 * sqrt(2)) + (0 + 2 * sqrt(2)) * sqrt((3 + 0 * sqrt(2))))
>>> z = y*y
>>> t = 10*y - z
>>> t == 1
True

Installation

To install from PYPI just type

pip install constructible

The library is a single pure python file, so it is also easy to install by hand.

Testing

There are some tests using unittest. Thanks to Travis-CI each push to github triggers a test:

Releasing on PYPI

The following steps are needed:

• Update the version in setup.py

• Tag the version in git:

  git tag 0.1 -m "Adds a tag so that we can put this on PyPI."
  git push --tags origin
  

• Test release with:

  python setup.py register -r pypitest
  python setup.py sdist upload -r pypitest
  

• Productive release with:

  python setup.py register -r pypi
  python setup.py sdist upload -r pypi
  

Changelog

• 2016-05-23 V0.1 Initial Release
• 2016-09-30 V0.2 Fixing Issue 1 and added Tests
• 2016-10-03 V0.3 Fixing Issue 2
• 2016-10-23 V0.4 Added __hash__ and __float__, speed optimizations

Aknowledgements

Thanks to Anders Kaseorg whose implementation of constructible numbers in Haskell provided inspiration and in particular the algorithm for taking square roots in quadratic extension fields.