> Dnia 00-10-02 Howard Price pisze: > > > Is it just me, or did it suddenly get geekier in here? :-) > What is it? > > > But is there really positive and negative zeroes? It's peaked > > my geeky interest. > They are only if you define them. I defined them as "value > smaller (as absolute) than smalest value having binary > representation". They are usable, when you cannot colculate > value, but you can calculate its sign. So: > > 1 / "+zero" = "+infinity", > 1 / "-zero" = "-infinity", > "+zero" * "-zero" = "-zero", etc.
In real life, however, numbers are not realted to their representation. So you have one zero, regardless the representation of that zero. If you have two representations (i.e. positive and negative zero), it is still the same zero. In the fact, you can't simply "define" these two ~numbers~, unless you define whole algebra with all possible implications and consequences. Did you do it? > -- > Yarek. >
