Period of Reciprocal of Prime

Theorem

Consider the decimal expansion of the reciprocal $\dfrac 1 p$ of a prime $p$.

If $p \nmid a$, the decimal expansion of $\dfrac 1 p$ is periodic in base $a$ and its period of recurrence is the order of $a$ modulo $p$.

If $p \divides a$, the decimal expansion of $\dfrac 1 p$ in base $a$ terminates.

Let $q = \dfrac a p$.

Then $\dfrac 1 p = \dfrac q a$.

So the decimal expansion of $\dfrac 1 p$ in base $a$ is $0.q$ and terminates.

$\Box$

By definition, $d$ is the smallest integer such that:

$a^d \equiv 1 \pmod p$

By definition of modulo arithmetic:

$\exists x \in \Z: a^d - 1 = xp$

We can rearrange the terms to achieve the following expression:

$\ds \frac 1 p$

$=$

$\ds \frac x {a^d - 1}$

$\ds $

$=$

$\ds \frac x {a^d} \frac 1 {1 - \frac 1 {a^d} }$

factorizing

$\ds $

$=$

$\ds \frac x {a^d} \paren {1 + \paren {\frac 1 {a^d} } + \paren {\frac 1 {a^d} }^2 + \paren {\frac 1 {a^d} }^3 + \cdots}$

$\ds $

$=$

$\ds \paren {\frac 1 {a^d} } x + \paren {\frac 1 {a^d} }^2 x + \paren {\frac 1 {a^d} }^3 x + \cdots$

rearranging

so the decimal expansion of $\dfrac 1 p$ in base $a$ is $0.xxx...$ and is periodic of length $d$, which is the order of $a$ modulo $p$.

$\blacksquare$