3 ms·
The ancient Mesopotamian (Sumerian/Akkadian) system was floating point. The exponent was implied rather than explicitly written though. So 1/120, 1/2, 30, and 1
by jacobolus 9y ago
The ancient Mesopotamian (Sumerian/Akkadian) system was floating point. The exponent was implied rather than explicitly written though. So 1/120, 1/2, 30, and 1800 were all written the same way.
Modern 'scientific notation' is also floating point.
- kutkloon7 9y agoAhh, that explains a lot. Thanks.
- kps 9y agoFor a century up to the 1970s most engineering calculations were done to three decimal digits with implied-exponent floating point hardware¹. ¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slide_rule https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slide_rule
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]