Integers and rationals

In an earlier post, I asked readers to implement the bijection rational->integer and integer->rational. John Cowan suggested the Calkin-Wilf tree as a starting point. The Calkin-Wilf tree is a rooted binary tree where the nodes (or vertices, if you like) are labeled with positive rational numbers. It is infinite and complete: every node has two children. The Calkin-Wilf tree is constructed so that every rational number is assigned a unique node. Every positive rational number appears once and exactly once in the tree. The path from the root node to any selected rational is unique and can be encoded (in binary) as an integer.

1 ]=> (rational->integer 355/113)

;Value: 67107847

1 ]=> (integer->rational 67107847)

;Value: 355/113

1 ]=> (cwt/value *the-calkin-wilf-tree*)

;Value: 1

1 ]=> (cwt/value (cwt/left *the-calkin-wilf-tree*))

;Value: 1/2

1 ]=> (cwt/value (cwt/right *the-calkin-wilf-tree*))

;Value: 2

1 ]=> (cwt/value (cwt/left (cwt/right (cwt/left (cwt/left *the-calkin-wilf-tree*)))))

;Value: 4/7

Ho hum. We've all seen this sort of thing before.

Here's the unusual part:

1 ]=> cwt/left

;Value 1236: #[linear-fractional-transform 1236 x/(x + 1)]

1 ]=> cwt/right

;Value 1237: #[linear-fractional-transform 1237 (x + 1)]

So I can write

1 ]=> (cwt/value ((compose cwt/left cwt/right cwt/left cwt/left) *the-calkin-wilf-tree*))

;Value: 4/7

1 ]=> (lft/compose cwt/left cwt/right cwt/left cwt/left)

;Value 1260: #[linear-fractional-transform 1260 (3x + 1)/(5x + 2)]

(See "Playing with Linear Fractional Transforms")

---

The dyadic fractions are those rational numbers whose denominator is a power of 2. Numbers like 1/4, 3/8, or 11/32. These are the divisions you'd find on a ruler (in the US). Floating point numbers are usually implemented as dyadic fractions.
You can put the dyadic fractions into a binary tree as follows:

(define *the-dyadic-fraction-tree* 1)

(define (dft/left node)
  (/ (- (* (numerator node) 2) 1)
     (* (denominator node) 2)))

(define (dft/right node)
  (/ (+ (* (numerator node) 2) 1)
     (* (denominator node) 2)))

1 ]=> *the-dyadic-fraction-tree*

;Value: 1

1 ]=> (dft/left *the-dyadic-fraction-tree*)

;Value: 1/2

1 ]=> (dft/right *the-dyadic-fraction-tree*)

;Value: 3/2

1 ]=> (dft/left (dft/left (dft/right (dft/left *the-dyadic-fraction-tree*))))

;Value: 9/16

The next question is, what happens if I use a path derived from the Calkin-Wilf tree and use it on the dyadic fraction tree? Yes, this is a fairly random thing to try, but the trees are the same (that is, have the same structure) even if the values at the nodes are not. Either set of fractions is in a one-to-one mapping with the tree, so there is a one-to-one mapping between rational numbers and dyadic fractions.

This is Minkowski's ? (question mark) function. It maps the rational numbers on the X axis to the dyadic fraction on the Y axis. It has a number of weird properties. For example, it is strictly increasing and continuous, but it is not absolutely continuous. The function does not have a derivative in the usual sense.

A textbook case

This is priceless. The url is http://imgur.com/tDSX24E. It says

This is in a high school math textbook in Texas.

Example 2 : Is there a one-to-one and onto correspondence between integers and rational numbers? ... -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 ... ... -1/4 -1/3 -1/2 -1/1 -2/4 -2/3 -2/2 -2/1 -3/4 -3/3 -3/2 -3/1 No matter how you arrange the sets, there is never one unique integer for each rational number. There is not a one-to-one and onto correspondence.

---

The challenge: implement rational->integer that returns "one unique integer for each rational number", and its inverse, integer->rational.

Currying and confusion

A friend of mine recently said to me "Don't know anything about currying except for food". I'm sure that nearly everyone who reads this blog is familiar with currying functions (and has probably curried a function within the last few hours), but it makes a good blog topic anyway.

"Currying" a function (as opposed to an entrée) is named after Haskell Curry, but he was inspired by a paper by Moses Schönfinkel, and it appears that Gottlob Frege came up with idea. So much for the name.

Pick your favorite binary function. I like "multiply", but any binary function will do. It need not be associative or commutative. As an example, imagine a print-to function that takes a document and a device.

Now consider these unary functions:

(define (multiply-by-five n) (* 5 n))
(define (multiply-by-negative-one n) (* -1 n))
(define (multiply-by-thirty-seven n) (* 37 n))
etc.

There is an obvious pattern here that we can abstract out:

(define (make-multiply-by x) (lambda (n) (* x n))

(define multiply-by-five (make-multiply-by 5))
(define multiply-by-negative-one (make-multiply-by -1))
(define multiply-by-thirty-seven (make-multiply-by 37))

Or, if we use print-to

(define (make-print-to-device device) (lambda (doc) (print-to doc device)))

(define print-to-inkjet (make-print-to-device the-inkjet-printer))
(define print-to-daisywheel (make-print-to-device the-daisy-wheel-printer))

Note the similarity between make-multiply-by and make-print-to-device.

(define (make-multiply-by x) (lambda (n) (* x n))
(define (make-print-to-device device) (lambda (doc) (print-to doc device)))

(define (make-<unary> an-argument)
  (lambda (another-argument) (<binary> an-argument another-argument)))

We can abstract this operation:

(define (make-unary-maker binary-operation)
  (define (make-unary-operation an-argument)
    (lambda (other-argument)
      (binary-operation an-argument other-argument)))
  make-unary-operation)

We have a pile of functions, all similar because they were created with the make- function. And the make- functions are all similar because they were created with make-unary-maker.

This is the meta-operation we call "currying". We take a function of several arguments, decide on some fixed values for some subset of arguments, and return a new function of the remaining, unfixed arguments.

---

Captain Obvious has a few things to say about functions.

A function won't return a value unless you call it.

The cardinality of the set of return values cannot be larger than the cardinality of the set of valid arguments. Functions don't make up values. There can be fewer possible return values than possible valid arguments, but never more.

If two sets are different sizes, then if you try to pair up elements from each set, you'll have some left over.

If we compose two functions and the set of possible output from the first is different in size from the set of possible valid input to the second, then there will either be output from the first that the second cannot accept, or possible inputs to the second that the first cannot produce. The latter case isn't a problem, but in the former case, you'll get an error.

If you "invert" a function, its output becomes input and vice versa.

Since inverse functions (when they exist, that is) are functions, The same constraints on the cardinality of input and output apply, but in the other direction. If you invert a composition, then the valid arguments and results swap roles. If the cardinalities match, we're cool, but if there is a mismatch, we're in the opposite situation of the non-inverse, and what was not an error (i.e. accepting an input that can never be produced) becomes one (i.e. producing a value that cannot be accepted).

If the appropriate cardinalities never increase, you can compose two functions. If the appropriate cardinalities match, you can invert the composition.

---

What does this have to do with currying?

I'm reading a bit about group theory and I chanced upon some exposition that was thick with comments and arguments surrounding the cardinality of various sets and subsets within the group. Once the exposition introduced a number of sets with equal cardinalities, the author pointed out that you can define an invertible function between any two sets with the same cardinality. Since the set of integers and the set of multiply-by- functions have the same cardinality, you could define a function that maps integers to multiply-by- functions. This isn't much of a revelation because that's what we did to get those functions in the first place. After slogging through this, I finally worked out what they were trying to say: "You can curry the binary operation." But they completely avoided the word "curry", and made arguments about set cardinality.

The next paragraph in the exposition was worse. You can curry the other argument to the binary operation. This leads to a completely different set of curried functions over a different set of arguments. Now it ultimately doesn't matter which argument you curry, when all is said and done, both arguments show up and are passed to the binary function. But all the intermediate values are drawn from different sets than if you curried the other way. It takes a very complicated argument about cardinalities to derive that either way of currying will work.

Something less abstract

To recap, a linear fractional transform (lft) is a function of this form:

(lambda (x)
  (/ (+ (* A x) B)
     (+ (* C x) D)))

Using an object-oriented extension to Scheme, I've given these functions a special print method so they look pretty. (I'm using MIT/Gnu Scheme with SOS, a CLOS-like object system. I haven't included all the code in my posts, but it should be easy for an intermediate programmer to replicate this.)

1 ]=> (make-linear-fractional-transform 1 2 3 4)

;Value 13: #[linear-fractional-transform 13 (x + 2)/(3x + 4)]

But otherwise they are normal one argument functions. Since they take and return objects of the same type, you can chain them together with function composition.

(define foo (make-linear-fractional-transform 1 2 3 4))
(define bar (make-linear-fractional-transform 1 4 0 2))

1 ]=> (compose foo bar)

;Value 14: #[compiled-closure 14 (lambda "global" #x35) #x84 #x25de16c #x3a5ea78]

1 ]=> ((compose foo bar) 1/10)

;Value: 81/203

lft/compose knows to explicitly construct an lft rather than a generic closure,

1 ]=> (lft/compose foo bar)

;Value 15: #[linear-fractional-transform 15 (x + 8)/(3x + 20)]

1 ]=> ((lft/compose foo bar) 1/10)

;Value: 81/203

but there is no difference when you apply the composed function.

I've been distracted by group theory, so let's do something less abstract. Here is an infinite stream of linear fractional transforms.

(define lft-stream
  (cons-stream
   (make-linear-fractional-transform 0 4 1 0)
   (stream-map
    (lambda (n d)
      (make-linear-fractional-transform n 1 d 0))
    (odds)
    (cons-stream 1 (stream-map square (naturals))))))

1 ]=> (pp (stream-head lft-stream 10))
(#[linear-fractional-transform 17 4/x]
 #[linear-fractional-transform 26 (x + 1)/x]
 #[linear-fractional-transform 25 (3x + 1)/x]
 #[linear-fractional-transform 34 (5x + 1)/4x]
 #[linear-fractional-transform 33 (7x + 1)/9x]
 #[linear-fractional-transform 32 (9x + 1)/16x]
 #[linear-fractional-transform 31 (11x + 1)/25x]
 #[linear-fractional-transform 30 (13x + 1)/36x]
 #[linear-fractional-transform 29 (15x + 1)/49x]
 #[linear-fractional-transform 28 (17x + 1)/64x])

This is a stream of functions, so let's compose them. Imagine our function stream is (f g h ...). We want to generate the stream (f (compose f g) (compose f g h) ...)

1 ]=> (fold-stream lft/compose lft:identity lft-stream)

;Value 36: {#[linear-fractional-transform 37 x] ...}

1 ]=> (pp (stream-head (fold-stream lft/compose lft:identity lft-stream) 10))
(#[linear-fractional-transform 37 x]
 #[linear-fractional-transform 17 4/x]
 #[linear-fractional-transform 45 4x/(x + 1)]
 #[linear-fractional-transform 44 (12x + 4)/(4x + 1)]
 #[linear-fractional-transform 43 (19x + 3)/(6x + 1)]
 #[linear-fractional-transform 42 (160x + 19)/(51x + 6)]
 #[linear-fractional-transform 41 (1744x + 160)/(555x + 51)]
 #[linear-fractional-transform 40 (23184x + 1744)/(7380x + 555)]
 #[linear-fractional-transform 39 (10116x + 644)/(3220x + 205)]
 #[linear-fractional-transform 38 (183296x + 10116)/(58345x + 3220)])

Let's apply these transforms to a number. 42 is random enough.

1 ]=> (pp (stream-head 
     (stream-map 
      (lambda (transform) (transform 42.0)) 
      (fold-stream lft/compose lft:identity lft-stream))
     10))
  (42. 
   .09523809523809523
   3.9069767441860463
   3.0059171597633134
   3.16600790513834
   3.137337057728119
   3.1423312358203845
   3.141464985588458
   3.1416146775443905
   3.1415888593191537)

That looks familiar. We'll pick a point further on in the stream.

1 ]=> (stream-ref (fold-stream lft/compose lft:identity lft-stream) 20)

;Value 48: #[linear-fractional-transform 48 (2166457145737216x + 48501417558016)/(689604727481670x + 15438480702645)]

1 ]=> ((stream-ref (fold-stream lft/compose lft:identity lft-stream) 20) 1.0)

;Value: 3.1415926535898056

This stream of functions are functions that approximate π. Each element in the stream is a function that is a better approximation of π than the last.

1 ]=> (stream-ref (fold-stream lft/compose lft:identity lft-stream) 10)

;Value 51: #[linear-fractional-transform 51 (3763456x + 183296)/(1197945x + 58345)]

1 ]=> (define foo (stream-ref (fold-stream lft/compose lft:identity lft-stream) 10))

1 ]=> (foo 0.0)

;Value: 3.1415888250921244

1 ]=> (foo 1.0)

;Value: 3.141593103503172

1 ]=> (exact->inexact (foo 'infinity))

;Value: 3.1415933118799275

Ok, let's subtract off that three.

(define (make-lft-subtract n)
  (make-linear-fractional-transform 1 (- n) 0 1))

1 ]=> (lft/compose (make-lft-subtract 3) foo)

;Value 54: #[linear-fractional-transform 54 (169621x + 8261)/(1197945x + 58345)]

1 ]=> ((lft/compose (make-lft-subtract 3) foo) 42.)

;Value: .14159330668296408

And multiply by ten

(define (make-lft-multiply n)
  (make-linear-fractional-transform n 0 0 1))

1 ]=> (lft/compose (make-lft-multiply 10) (make-lft-subtract 3) foo)

;Value 55: #[linear-fractional-transform 55 (339242x + 16522)/(239589x + 11669)]

1 ]=> ((lft/compose (make-lft-multiply 10) (make-lft-subtract 3) foo) 42.)

;Value: 1.4159330668296406

and now the next decimal digit is in the ones place. If we repeat this process, we'll generate the decimal digits of our approximation to π one at a time.

1 ]=> ((lft/compose (make-lft-multiply 10) (make-lft-subtract 3) foo) 42.)

;Value: 1.4159330668296406

1 ]=> ((lft/compose (make-lft-multiply 10)
                    (make-lft-subtract 1)
                    (make-lft-multiply 10)
                    (make-lft-subtract 3) foo) 42.)

;Value: 4.159330668296407

1 ]=> ((lft/compose (make-lft-multiply 10)
                    (make-lft-subtract 4)
                    (make-lft-multiply 10)
                    (make-lft-subtract 1)
                    (make-lft-multiply 10)
                    (make-lft-subtract 3) foo) 42.)

;Value: 1.5933066829640692

We'll define a composition as a data structure with an lft and a promise (delayed evaluation) to provide more lfts to compose. Operations on a composition will work on the lft and try to avoid forcing the promise if possible. If the lft isn't a good enough approximation, we force the promise, get a new lft, and create a new composition.

(define-class (<lft-composition>
        (constructor make-lft-composition 
                            (linear-fractional-transform promise)))
  ()
  (linear-fractional-transform define accessor accessor composition-transform)
  (promise                     define accessor accessor composition-promise))

(define (composition/refine lft-composition)
  (let ((lft (composition-transform lft-composition))
        (lft-stream (force (composition-promise lft-composition))))
    (make-lft-composition (lft/compose lft (head lft-stream)) (cdr lft-stream))))

Getting the integer part of a composition involves getting the integer part of the transform, if possible, and if not, refining the composition until it is possible. composition/integer-and-fraction returns two values: the integer extracted, and the final composition remaining after any refinement steps and after subtracting off the integer.

(define (composition/%integer-part lft-composition)
  (lft/integer-part (composition-transform lft-composition)))

(define (composition/integer-and-fraction lft-composition)
  (let ((integer (composition/%integer-part lft-composition)))
    (if (not integer)
        (composition/integer-and-fraction (composition/refine lft-composition))
        (values integer (make-lft-composition
                         (lft/compose 
                            (make-linear-fractional-transform 1 (- integer) 0 1)
                            (composition-transform lft-composition))
                         (composition-promise lft-composition))))))

We'll create a stream of digits by peeling off the integer parts and multiplying the fraction by 10.

(define (composition->digit-stream c radix)
  (receive (ipart fpart) (composition/integer-and-fraction c)
    (cons-stream 
     ipart 
     (composition->digit-stream
      (make-lft-composition
       (lft/compose (make-linear-fractional-transform radix 0 0 1)
      (composition-transform (force fpart)))
       (composition-promise (force fpart)))
      radix))))

(define foocomp (make-lft-composition (head lft-stream) (cdr lft-stream)))

1 ]=> (stream-head (composition->digit-stream foocomp 10) 50)

;Value 204: (3 1 4 1 5 9 2 6 5 3 5 8 9 7 9 3 2 3 8 4 6 2 6 4 3 3 8 3 2 7 9 5 0 2 8 8 4 1 9 7 1 6 9 3 9 9 3 7 5 1)

Flipping the number line

Here is a number line. It looks funny because I did two things: first, I stretched and compressed different parts so I could fit all the numbers in. Second, I rolled it into a circle.

All the numbers are in there. Most of them are really crammed near the top.

What happens to the number line if you apply a linear fractional transform? Here I apply 1/x:

1/x flips the entire diagram vertically. (What happens if you apply -x?)

In this example, I apply x + 1:

The numbers in the circle rotate clockwise, but not exactly linearly. The negative numbers are compressed and the positive numbers expanded.

There are, of course, an unlimited number of linear fractional transformations I can apply to my number line, but they all act by flipping or rotating the number line in some manner. We can derive every transform by a sequence of flips and rotates. Can we find a basic set of operations from which we can construct all the rest?

We can enumerate all the linear fractional transforms the same way we enumerate all rational numbers. We conceptually make a table of all of them, but we walk the table diagonally. There are four integers per linear fractional transform, rather than the two in a rational number, but that makes only a minor difference. It seems likely that our basic set of operations will be found in the set of linear fractional transforms with small integers for coefficients. If we use the positive and negative integers with absolute value of four or less, we'll have a good sized set to start with. Just from the combinatorics, we'd expect (expt 9 4) possible ways to list them, but many of these are duplicates. Nonetheless, there are still 2736 unique linear fractional transforms with coefficients that have an absolute value of four or less.

(I'm tired of typing "linear fractional transform". I'm going to abbreviate it lft.)

What happens if you compose an lft with itself? Obviously constants and identity remain unchanged, but the other ones are more interesting. These lfts are self inverses. If you compose them with themselves, you get the identity:

#[linear-fractional-transform 20 -x]
#[linear-fractional-transform 14 1/x]
#[linear-fractional-transform 13 -1/x]
#[linear-fractional-transform 227 x/(x - 1)]
#[linear-fractional-transform 226 -x/(x + 1)]
#[linear-fractional-transform 225 -(x + 1)]
#[linear-fractional-transform 224 (1 - x)]
#[linear-fractional-transform 223 (x + 1)/(x - 1)]
#[linear-fractional-transform 222 (1 - x)/(x + 1)]

These ones are not identities when you compose them twice (lft/compose x x), but they are identities if you compose them three times (lft/compose x x x)

#[linear-fractional-transform 522 1/(1 - x)]
#[linear-fractional-transform 521 -1/(x + 1)]
#[linear-fractional-transform 397 -(x + 1)/x]
#[linear-fractional-transform 396 (x - 1)/x]

These two are examples that require four composes

#[linear-fractional-transform 528 (x + 1)/(1 - x)]
#[linear-fractional-transform 527 (x - 1)/(x + 1)]

And these examples require six:

#[linear-fractional-transform 59 (x + 1)/(2 - x)]
#[linear-fractional-transform 58 (x - 1)/(x + 2)]
#[linear-fractional-transform 57 (2x + 1)/(1 - x)]
#[linear-fractional-transform 56 (2x - 1)/(x + 1)]
#[linear-fractional-transform 55 1/(3 - 3x)]

I have not seen an lft that gives the identity when composed with itself five times, nor seven, or eight.

Some lfts never self compose to identities. Obviously repeated self composition of x+1 will never equal the identity.

Linear fractional transforms and permutations

So what does group theory have to do with linear fractional transforms? I'm glad you asked. The answer is pretty complicated, though.

There's no good place to start here, so let's just dive in. This function computes the cross-ratio of four numbers:

(define (cross-ratio A B C D)
  (/ (* (- a b) (- c d))
     (* (- a d) (- c b))))

1 ]=> (cross-ratio 1 9 5 13)

;Value: 4/3

There's a geometric interpretation of the cross ratio, but for the moment, just think of it as a function that takes any four numbers and produces a value.

1 ]=> (cross-ratio 3 2 1 9)

;Value: -4/3

1 ]=> (cross-ratio 5 1 8 4)

;Value: 16/7

The cross ratio is preserved under linear fractional transforms:

1 ]=> (define lft2 (make-linear-fractional-transform 3 -1 2 7))

;Value: lft2

1 ]=> (cross-ratio (lft2 3) (lft2 2) (lft2 1) (lft2 9))

;Value: -4/3

1 ]=> (cross-ratio (lft 3) (lft 2) (lft 1) (lft 9))

;Value: -4/3

1 ]=> (cross-ratio 3 2 1 9)

;Value: -4/3

The cross ratio is also preserved under some permutations of its arguments.

1 ]=> (cross-ratio 3 2 1 9)

;Value: -4/3

1 ]=> (cross-ratio 1 9 3 2)

;Value: -4/3

1 ]=> (cross-ratio 2 3 9 1)

;Value: -4/3

but not all

1 ]=> (cross-ratio 3 2 9 1)

;Value: 4/7

1 ]=> (cross-ratio 2 9 3 1)

;Value: 7/3

Now here's the interesting part. There's a linear fractional transform that will "undo" the permutation of the arguments to cross-ratio.

1 ]=> ((make-linear-fractional-transform -1 1 0 1) 7/3)

;Value: -4/3

1 ]=> ((make-linear-fractional-transform 1 0 1 -1) 4/7)

;Value: -4/3

There are 24 permutations of the argument list to cross-ratio, and here are the equivalence classes:

((-4/3 (1 9 3 2) (2 3 9 1) (3 2 1 9) (9 1 2 3))
 (-3/4 (1 2 3 9) (2 1 9 3) (3 9 1 2) (9 3 2 1))
  (3/7 (1 2 9 3) (2 1 3 9) (3 9 2 1) (9 3 1 2))
  (4/7 (1 9 2 3) (2 3 1 9) (3 2 9 1) (9 1 3 2))
  (7/4 (1 3 2 9) (2 9 1 3) (3 1 9 2) (9 2 3 1))
  (7/3 (1 3 9 2) (2 9 3 1) (3 1 2 9) (9 2 1 3)))

And these are the linear fractional transforms that permute among these:

(#[linear-fractional-transform 89333 x]
#[linear-fractional-transform 89334 1/x]
#[linear-fractional-transform 89335 (1 - x)]
#[linear-fractional-transform 89403 1/(1 - x)]
#[linear-fractional-transform 89370 x/(x - 1)]
#[linear-fractional-transform 89393 (x - 1)/x])

This is cool. Instead of thinking of a linear fractional transform as a continuous function that traces out a hyperbola, or as an interval on the real number line, we can think of a linear fractional transform as a function that computes a permutation.

---

Here is a function called d3 that is defined on the symbols a, b, c, d, e, and f.

1 ]=> (d3 'a 'b)

;Value: d

With six symbols, there's only 36 possible outcomes, so we can enumerate them:

    a b c d e f
a ((e d f b a c) 
b  (f e d c b a) 
c  (d f e a c b) 
d  (c a b f d e) 
e  (a b c d e f) 
f  (b c a e f d))

Here's a hack. The identity element can be seen to be 'e, so list that row and column first:

    e a b c d f
e ((e a b c d f) 
a  (a e d f b c) 
b  (b f e d c a) 
c  (c d f e a b) 
d  (d c a b f e) 
f  (f b c a e d))

Now the table headers are exactly the same as the first entries in the respective rows or columns, so you can do without them.

((e a b c d f) 
 (a e d f b c) 
 (b f e d c a) 
 (c d f e a b) 
 (d c a b f e) 
 (f b c a e d))

Another weird thing is that you can permute any rows but the first, or permute any columns but the first, and still have an equivalent table.

Anyway, d3 is the "symmetry group" of a triangle. Here the operations are

e = leave it alone
f = rotate clockwise 120 degrees
d = rotate counter-clockwise 120 degrees
a = hold vertex A in place, and flip the triangle over swapping vertex B and C
b = hold vertex B in place, and flip the triangle over swapping vertex A and C
c = hold vertex C in place, and flip the triangle over swapping vertex A and B

Now consider this,

e = #[linear-fractional-transform 89333 x]
f = #[linear-fractional-transform 89393 (x - 1)/x]
d = #[linear-fractional-transform 89403 1/(1 - x)]
a = #[linear-fractional-transform 89370 x/(x - 1)]
b = #[linear-fractional-transform 89335 (1 - x)]
c = #[linear-fractional-transform 89334 1/x]

Just as d3 permutes a triangle, these linear fractional transforms permute among the equivalence classes of cross ratios.