On Tue, Feb 26, 2008 at 1:32 PM, Johan Råde <rade@maths.lth.se> wrote:
The binary representation of floating point numbers is computer science, not mathematics. Numerical analysis is an interdisciplinary field, involving both mathematics and computer science.
The field of numerical analysis predates the invention of modern computers (and hence CS) by many centuries. It's true that Numerical Analysis deals w/ more than just binary representation of real numbers, but it *does* deal w/ them. Speaking from my experience, I know more Mathematicians who understand how floating point numbers work than I do computer scientists who know, and I probably know 10 computer scientists for each mathematician that I know. I am always dismayed by how many computer scientists don't really know anything about floating point numbers, other than the obvious. This may be related to more Math departments requiring a numerical analysis class than CS departments, but I don't really know. Take that for whatever it's worth. Your experience may be very different from mine. Jon