Floating-point Numbers Aren't Real
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(New page: Floating-point numbers are not real numbers in the mathematical sense. Real numbers have infinite precision; floating-point numbers have fixed precision, and resemble "badly-behaved" integ...) |
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| - | Floating-point numbers are not real numbers in the mathematical sense. Real numbers have infinite precision; floating-point numbers have fixed precision, and resemble "badly-behaved" integers. | + | Floating-point numbers are not real numbers in the mathematical sense. Real numbers have infinite precision; floating-point numbers have fixed precision, and resemble "badly-behaved" integers. If you have access to a 32-bit platform with single-precision IEEE floating-point, like '''float''' in C++ on Windows, assign 2147483647 (the largest signed integer) to a float variable ('''x''', say), and print it. You'll see 2147483648! |
Revision as of 16:07, 14 December 2008
Floating-point numbers are not real numbers in the mathematical sense. Real numbers have infinite precision; floating-point numbers have fixed precision, and resemble "badly-behaved" integers. If you have access to a 32-bit platform with single-precision IEEE floating-point, like float in C++ on Windows, assign 2147483647 (the largest signed integer) to a float variable (x, say), and print it. You'll see 2147483648!
