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A bug in windows calculator?

tsaw

tsaw

New member
GOLD Site Supporter
I just pulled up the standard windows calculator and found this -

1/3 =0.33333333333333333333333333333333
and then * that by 3.. the answer= 1


By it's own logic then..,
If I enter:
0.33333333333333333333333333333333*3 I should get 1

But nope.
0.999999999999999999999999999999

Try it yourself.

Math to me is the Holy Grail of logic.

There can not be contradictions. But there you have one. A big one.
 
RoadKing

RoadKing

Silver Member
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I envy you, math is something I never understood.

I've never been able to make sense of 3+A=17. HUH?
 
California

California

Charter Member
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Nah, just the limitations of binary processors. There are fudges built into computers so they don't give even weirder results on this kind of calculation.

Nobody thought there was a problem until IBM's first random-number table was proven to be badly non-random, several years after it became widely used.

That computer you are using is just a tool with limited capabilities, and you just found one limitation. It's not Pure Truth!
 
tsaw

tsaw

New member
GOLD Site Supporter
RoadKing said:
I envy you, math is something I never understood.

I've never been able to make sense of 3+A=17. HUH?
Click to expand...

I take it you are joking. If not the A is simple.
Just take 17 and subtract 3. A=14.
Thus 3+14=17.

At any rate.. there sure is smelly fish in windows calculator.
How can they have it both ways.
 
DaveNay

DaveNay

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Computers cannot do 100% accurate floating point math (anything with a decimal place). All floating point numbers in a computer are guesses...accurate guesses (most of the time), but still a guess.
 
Cowboy

Cowboy

Wait for it.
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Great thread tsaw Thanks alot , now you come up with something I suck at even more the spellin & grammer :yum:
 
RobsanX

RobsanX

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tsaw said:
I just pulled up the standard windows calculator and found this -

1/3 =0.33333333333333333333333333333333
and then * that by 3.. the answer= 1


By it's own logic then..,
If I enter:
0.33333333333333333333333333333333*3 I should get 1

But nope.
0.999999999999999999999999999999

Try it yourself.

Math to me is the Holy Grail of logic.

There can not be contradictions. But there you have one. A big one.
Click to expand...

1/3 = 0.33333333... is an approximation. The 3's repeat to infinitely.

0.333333333*3=0.999999999 is an exact answer. You would only get 1 if you typed in an infinite number of 3's. Try it!
 
tsaw

tsaw

New member
GOLD Site Supporter
RobsanX said:
1/3 = 0.33333333... is an approximation. The 3's repeat to infinitely.

0.333333333*3=0.999999999 is an exact answer. You would only get 1 if you typed in an infinite number of 3's. Try it!
Click to expand...

Try what? Typing an infinite number of 3's?:hammer::yum:
Here is what I see:
(.3infinity)*3=(.9infinity).
 
RoadKing

RoadKing

Silver Member
Site Supporter
tsaw said:
I take it you are joking. If not the A is simple.
Just take 17 and subtract 3. A=14.
Thus 3+14=17.

At any rate.. there sure is smelly fish in windows calculator.
How can they have it both ways.
Click to expand...

actually I'm not joking I flunked Algebra 1 in high school and never learned any math other than simple math. Something funny is I have to use a fair amount of math and geometry in my work and drive people nuts when they watch me work.

I seem to be able to arrive at the right answers but by the wrong method.
 
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