[Tutor] [OT] Re: Floating Point Crazines

[Wayne Werner]

On Sun, Jun 12, 2011 at 9:11 PM, Steven D'Aprano <steve at pearwood.info>wrote:

> Robert Sjoblom wrote:
>
>> * Or you just get used to the fact that some numbers are not exact in
>>>> floating point.
>>>>
>>> This got me thinking. How many decimal places do you need to
>>> accurately, say, aim a laser somewhere in a 180 degree arc accurately
>>> enough to hit a dime on the surface of the moon?
>>>
>>> Alan
>>>
>>
>> In short: it's pretty much impossible.
>>
> [...]
>
>  To bring it back on topic: could python handle these numbers reliably?
>>
>
> *Physically* impossible, not mathematically.
> [...] at least we can be comforted by the knowledge that a C double or a
> Python float is precise enough to handle the job.
>

Which is actually unsurprising, since my calculator has several times the
processing power of the computers on board the original lunar lander. Also,
the phone in my pocket probably has several thousand times the processing
power and millions of times the memory.

Pretty amazing!
-Wayne
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