From: Josef 'Jupp' Schugt <jupp@...>
Date: 2006-11-10T06:38:18+09:00
Subject: Re: Simple Math Problem

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* Thom Loring, 11/08/2006 06:35 PM:
> Any insight?

Visit an introduction to Numerical Mathematics at your favorite
university. Numerical imprecision and the stability of algorithms
against it is one of the most prominent questions addressed there.
Also they address the question how precise a result of a computation
can be given a certain imprecision of input that either results from
the computer's approximation to a given value (decimal 0.1 cannot be
represented as a binary fraction with a finite number of digits) or
from imprecisely known values - which includes any measured quantity
occuring in natural science (actually all quantities that are not
defined by law as it is the case with vacuum light speed that by law
is defined to be precisely 299792458 m/s).

Jupp
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