...and real-world examples REALLY help drive the concept home. Thanks again.
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, August 27, 2004 7:53 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [U2] Precision question... <number theory lesson for those interested> If you recall, the "decimal" portion of a number can be represented as a sum of negative powers of 10 (e.g., .58 = (5 * 10^-1) + (8 * 10^-2)). In a binary storage system, this must be converted to negative powers of 2. A close approximate value using 10 bits is 2^-1 + 2^-4 + 2^-6 + 2^-9 = (0.5 + 0.0625 + 0.015625 + 0.001953125) = 0.58078125 Even if I increase the binary precision, I would still have that trailing 25 at the far end of my representation. While this might not seem significant, when you total hundreds, thousands or millions of transactions, you will eventually be off in a significant digit. Accountants don't like that... </number theory lesson for those interested> ------- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe please visit http://listserver.u2ug.org/
