From: Rick DeNatale <rick.denatale@...>
Date: 2007-06-23T04:12:17+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby doesn't know how to multiply

On 6/21/07, Adriano Ferreira <a.r.ferreira@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 6/21/07, juan pedro meri�o <juapdiaz@gmail.com> wrote:
> > You are rigth James, but you can better reponse why is a floating point
> > error?
> >
>
> Some numbers (like 0.1) cannot be represented exactly in binary with a
> finite number of bits (because 0.1[base 10] =
> 0.0001100110011001100110011...[base 2]) and when they are represented
> (as it happens with floating point representations), they lose
> precision

Actually in any base there are fractions which cannot be represented with a
FINITE number of digits.  For instance in base 10:

1/3 = 0.33333333333.......


-- 
Rick DeNatale

My blog on Ruby
http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/