Abstract: In this survey article, we revisit construction of simple continued fractions of quadratic irrationals with long period lengths, which has generated much interest in the relatively recent literature. We show that new and not-so-new results actually follow from results of Perron in the 1950s and from results of this author from over a decade ago. Moreover, we are able to generalize and simplify numerous such results for a better understanding of the phenomenon.
Keywords: Continued fractions, Pell's Equation, period length.
Classification (MSC2000): 11A55
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