On Sat, 27 Nov 2010 15:44:38 -0800, casevh wrote: > I think most users are expecting infinite precision when they use > rationals. Trying to explain limited precision rational arithmetic might > be interesting.
Most users are expecting infinite precision decimals when they use floats, and get surprised and dismayed by things like these: >>> sum([0.1]*10) == 1 False >>> 0.1 + 1e50 + 0.1 - 1e50 0.0 >>> a, b, c = 0.1, 0.7, 0.3 >>> a*b + a*c == a*(b+c) False Trying to explain arithmetic on computers is interesting, no matter what you use. -- Steven -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
