Stupid homographic function trick

A function of the form

is called a homographic function.  Here is one in Scheme:

(lambda (t)
   (/ (+ (* 3 t) 4)
      (+ (* 5 t) 2)))

And here is what it's graph looks like:

If you multiply all the coefficients (a, b, c, and d) by the same number, it doesn't change the function. For instance, this homographic function:

(lambda (t)
   (/ (+ (* 21 t) 28)
      (+ (* 35 t) 14)))

is the same as the one above. If one of your coefficients isn't an integer, don't worry, you can multiply everything by the denominator and get an equivalent homographic function. On the other hand, you can divide all your coefficients by their greatest common divisor and get an equivalent homographic function with smaller coefficients. We'll keep our homographic functions in smallest integer form.

A rational number can be written as the sum of an integer and a fraction less than one. For example, 23/5 = 4 + 3/5.

Let's apply a homographic function to a rational number:

((lambda (t)
   (/ (+ (* a t) b)
      (+ (* c t) d))) (+ x y/z))

;; substitute
(/ (+ (* a (+ x y/z)) b)
   (+ (* c (+ x y/z)) d))

;; distribute the multiplication
(/ (+ (* a x) (* a y/z) b)
   (+ (* c x) (* c y/z) d))

;; multiply top and bottom by z/y
(/ (* z/y (+ (* a x) (* a y/z) b))
   (* z/y (+ (* c x) (* c y/z) d)))

;; distribute the multiplication
(/ (+ (* a x z/y) (* a y/z z/y) (* b z/y))
   (+ (* c x z/y) (* c y/z z/y) (* d z/y)))

;; simplify
(/ (+ (* a x z/y) a (* b z/y))
   (+ (* c x z/y) c (* d z/y)))

;; rearrange terms
(/ (+ (* a x z/y) (* b z/y) a)
   (+ (* c x z/y) (* d z/y) c))

;; factor out z/y
(/ (+ (* (+ (* a x) b) z/y) a)
   (+ (* (+ (* c x) d) z/y) c))

Now we do something tricky. We abstract out the z/y term:

((lambda (t)
   (/ (+ (* (+ (* a x) b) t) a)
      (+ (* (+ (* c x) d) t) c))) (/ z y))

If introduce a let form, we can see something interesting:

((lambda (t)
   (let ((a1 (+ (* a x) b)) 
         (b1 a)
         (c1 (+ (* c x) d))
         (d1 c))
     (/ (+ (* a1 t) b1)
        (+ (* c1 t) d1)))) (/ z y))

We find a new homographic function being applied to a new rational number. The new homographic function has coefficients related to the original one, and the new rational number is the reciprocal of the fractional part of the original rational number. So if we have a homographic function hf applied to a fraction of the form x + y/z, we can easily find a new homographic function hf' that when applied to z/y will produce the same answer as the original. Applying a homographic function to a fraction has the effect of "eating" the integer part of the fraction, which generates a new homographic function that is applied to the reciprocal of the fractional part.