sys.float_info.epsilon

Scott David Daniels Scott.Daniels at Acm.Org
Wed Feb 4 19:29:37 EST 2009


I wrote:
 > You are missing the whole thing that mes floating point tricky....
 > The reason it is tough is that addition is not associative in real
 > numbers, and associativity is at the core > of a lot of proofs in
 > arithmetic (and group theory).

In response to which Tim Rowe wrote:
> ... Thanks for that. It makes me feel guilty to point out that:
> >   addition is not associative in real numbers
> should presumably be "addition is not associative in floating point numbers".

And, of course he is right (and didn't even whomp on my typo of "makes"
as "mes in the first line quoted above).

--Scott David Daniels
Scott.Daniels at Acm.Org



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