3 ms·
It’s a very interesting article that’s based entirely on a flawed premise, that floating point is the only way to represent numbers in a computer. It’s true tha
by joegibbs 2y ago
It’s a very interesting article that’s based entirely on a flawed premise, that floating point is the only way to represent numbers in a computer. It’s true that there are numbers that can’t be represented by a computer using any system, but they are so huge that you probably couldn’t represent them any other way either (say a random number with a quadrillion digits, since a billion digits is totally possible and a trillion is pushing it on consumer hardware. Even then, it could probably be done with a million bucks of hardware).
- defrost 2y agoIt all hinges about the mentioned tract “Dangers of Computer Arithmetic”. FWiW many of the mathematicians I knew that worked on the early iterations of the CAYLEY|Magma symbolic algebra system were equally ill suited to multiplying large numbers and bookkeeping - if not by numerical manipulation talent then certainly by temperament. None the less they managed to cobble together a computer math system that could generate a headline: Quantum encryption algorithm cracked in minutes by computer running Magma but of course that was not arithmetic.
- danielam 2y agoSee my reply: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40633347 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40633347