3 ms·
Haha, was just going to link that. Here's an ELI5, though not that illuminating: https://hackernoon.com/negative-zero-bbd5fd790af3 https://hackernoon.com/negat
by FabHK 5y ago
Haha, was just going to link that. Here's an ELI5, though not that illuminating:
https://hackernoon.com/negative-zero-bbd5fd790af3 https://hackernoon.com/negative-zero-bbd5fd790af3
But, bottom line, Kahan (not only the father of IEEE 754, but also, with Golub, father of the SVD!) has thought about it a lot, and though he called the signed zero "a pain in the ass", he also said "There really wasn’t a way around that and you were stuck with it."
http://history.siam.org/pdfs2/Kahan_final.pdf http://history.siam.org/pdfs2/Kahan_final.pdf
- edflsafoiewq 5y agoI don't really understand. Why is it important that there be two zeros so that 1/ (+0) = +∞ but 1/ (–0) = –∞ but not that there be two, say, 3s so that 1/ (3⁺ – 3) = +∞ but 1/ (3⁻ – 3) = –∞
- pests 5y agoBut we already have two threes: +3 and -3. It's not that it's important there be two, just every number already had 2 except for 0.