Rounding figures? (Take 2)

Subject: Rounding figures? (Take 2)
From: "Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2001 08:37:27 -0500

Rima Ruhman, responding to Kim Roper's observation that "2+ 2 *does* equal 5
... for sufficiently large values of "2"., responded that <<With that
reasoning, 2+2 can almost equal 6. (5.99999998)>>

But of course. That's just a _very_ large value of 2. But if you wish, we
could name this "Rima's lemma"...

--Geoff Hart, FERIC, Pointe-Claire, Quebec
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
"User's advocate" online monthly at
www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/usersadvocate.html

"Arthur C. Clarke had suggested that any sufficiently advanced technology
would be indistinguishable from magic--referring to a possible encounter
with an alien civilization--but if a science journalist had one
responsibility above all else, it was to keep Clarke's Law from applying to
human technology in human eyes."--Greg Egan, "Distress"

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Develop HTML-Based Help with Macromedia Dreamweaver 4 ($100 STC Discount)
**New Dates!!** San Francisco (Apr 16-17), San Jose (Mar 29-30)
http://www.weisner.com/training/dreamweaver_help.htm or 800-646-9989.

IPCC 01, the IEEE International Professional Communication Conference,
October 24-27, 2001 at historic La Fonda in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA.
CALL FOR PAPERS OPEN UNTIL MARCH 15. http://ieeepcs.org/2001/

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.


Previous by Author: Hyphenation of a word: vice-president? (Take II)
Next by Author: Hyphenation of a word: vice-president? (Take II)
Previous by Thread: Hyphenation of a word: vice-president? (Take II)
Next by Thread: Researching Toronto (off-topic)


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads