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  7. Date: Wed, 19 May 1999 10:58:33 EST
  8. Message-Id: <199905191058.AA33554740@saintolaves.demon.co.uk>
  9. From: <cheila@saintolaves.demon.co.uk>
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  20. Subject: Re: [amos-list] ?Math bug
  21. Status: O
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  23.  
  24. From: <cheila@saintolaves.demon.co.uk>
  25.  
  26. Hi
  27.  
  28. Computers use powers of two, so 1/2 can be exactly represented
  29. but 1/3 can't (just like 1/7 can't with decimal fractions).
  30.  
  31. A solution is to use arbitrary precision rational numbers
  32. (using long bitstrings, but very slow and awkward)
  33. but this isn't really necessary - the order of operations
  34. can make a big difference with floats.  Always try to avoid
  35. finding the difference of two similarly sized numbers, or
  36. adding a small number to a much larger one.
  37.  
  38. Hope this helps
  39.  
  40. Claude
  41.  
  42.  
  43.  
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