> >while it's relatively simple to make integers arbitrarily large, > >floating point is a much more difficult proposition: > > I know, rationally, that this is true. But intuitively it's always > struck a sour note. A floating point number is just an integer with > a dot in the middle. Why is it such a different beast?
Maybe that the queue at the right-hand side of the dot could be (and will be) infinitely long? The only integer with an infinite number of digits is the infinity (plus or minus, if you want). But there are infinitely many more numbers (more than there are integer numbers) with an infinite decimal expansion while being finite. Since I am not even talking about periodic decimal representations (%3), square root of 2 is a good example. Or Pi. Or E. Or all those infinite more without a name. But I am sure this must be one of the arguments that came up in your heated discussion with the professor... -- WildHeart'2k7 - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] My digipics and blogs: http://spaces.msn.com/members/wildy2k5/ My Music: http://www.myspace.com/wildy2k7 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
