[Numpy-discussion] Re: numpy, overflow, inf, ieee, and rich comparison

Rainer Deyke root at rainerdeyke.com
Tue Oct 24 15:39:28 EDT 2000


"Alex Martelli" <aleaxit at yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:8t4dl301a4 at news2.newsguy.com...
> Usability studies show that people without previous
> experiences to bias them find 2/3=0.6666667 more
> natural (that's the tidbit, emerged during the studies
> for CP4E, which swayed our BDFL, I think).

Everybody who expected 0.6666667, raise your hands.  Put your hands down.
Now, everybody who expected 0.6667 raise your hands.  How about those who
expected 0.66666666666666663 (the "real" result of 2.0/3.0 on my computer)?
Anybody?

In all of those cases, the result was truncated or rounded.  2/3=0 is just
more obvious and predictable about it.


--
Rainer Deyke (root at rainerdeyke.com)
Shareware computer games           -           http://rainerdeyke.com
"In ihren Reihen zu stehen heisst unter Feinden zu kaempfen" - Abigor





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