6 Sep
2005
6 Sep
'05
5:12 p.m.
Andy Little wrote:
On the contrary, conversion from rational to float is an example of a "lossy conversion".
Wrong. It is sometimes lossy, it is sometimes exact. Numbers like 1.3, 134.5858, -0.87, are all rational numbers. They can all be stored exactly in float. 1/3 is a rational number that cannot be stored exactly as a float. Where you keep going wrong for some reason is thinking anarbitrary precision rational class should store _any_ rational number with infinite precision. It's an arbitrary precision class, not an infinite precision class. Numbers like 1/3 will be stored to an approximation only (however many of digits of accuracy you ask for). Joel Eidsath