AMC10 2016 10A, Problem 4

The remainder can be defined for all real numbers $x$ and $y$ with $y \neq 0$ by \[\text{rem} (x ,y)=x-y\left \lfloor \frac{x}{y} \right \rfloor\]where $\left \lfloor \tfrac{x}{y} \right \rfloor$ denotes the greatest integer less than or equal to $\tfrac{x}{y}$. What is the value of $\text{rem} (\tfrac{3}{8}, -\tfrac{2}{5} )$?

Solution: The value, by definition, is \begin{align} \text{rem}\left(\frac{3}{8},-\frac{2}{5}\right) &= \frac{3}{8}-\left(-\frac{2}{5}\right)\left\lfloor\frac{\frac{3}{8}}{-\frac{2}{5}}\right\rfloor \\ &= \frac{3}{8}-\left(-\frac{2}{5}\right)\left\lfloor\frac{3}{8}\times\frac{-5}{2}\right\rfloor \\ &= \frac{3}{8}-\left(-\frac{2}{5}\right)\left\lfloor\frac{-15}{16}\right\rfloor\\ &= \frac{3}{8}-\left(-\frac{2}{5}\right)\left(-1\right)\\ &= \frac{3}{8}-\frac{2}{5}\\ &= \fbox{-\frac{1}{40}}. \end{align}

Answer: -\frac{1}{40}