This is stuff you should have learned in school in a numerical methods or numerical analysis class. If you didn't, take a read of What Every Computer Scientist

This is stuff you should have learned in school in a numerical methods or numerical analysis class. If you didn't, take a read of What Every Computer Scientist Should Know About Floating-Point Arithmetic. http://docs.sun.com/source/806-3568/ncg_goldberg.html http://docs.sun.com/source/806-3568/ncg_goldberg.html