Editing 217: e to the pi Minus pi
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
− | {{ | + | {{incomplete|We still need a fix on grammar and language}} |
+ | "e" is a mathematical constant that is an {{w|irrational number}} roughly equal to 2.71828182846. π is an other irrational number roughly equal to 3.14159265359. | ||
− | + | But computers use "floating point" numbers to store finite decimals, never able to be accurate on this numbers. As noted in the comic, e<sup>π</sup> - π is 19.999099979. However, [[Black Hat]]'s team mates didn't know enough about Mathematics and thought that it is true that e<sup>π</sup> - π = 20.0000... (infinitely many zeros). Therefore they thought their algorithm had a programming error. | |
− | {{w| | + | ACM is the {{w|Association for Computing Machinery}} sponsoring the {{w|ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest|International Collegiate Programming Contest}}. |
− | + | In the title text, another mathematical coincidence is presented. The 4th root of (9^2 + 19^2/22) is 3.1415926525, which is extremely close to pi (≈3.1415926535). A much later comic, [[Approximations]], takes this to the next level. | |
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− | A much later comic, [[ | ||
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
− | :Cueball: Hey, check it out: e | + | :Cueball: Hey, check it out: e^pi-pi is 19.999099979. That's weird. |
:Black Hat: Yeah. That's how I got kicked out of the ACM in college. | :Black Hat: Yeah. That's how I got kicked out of the ACM in college. | ||
:Cueball: ...what? | :Cueball: ...what? | ||
− | :Black Hat: During a competition, I told the programmers on our team that e | + | :Black Hat: During a competition, I told the programmers on our team that e^pi-pi was a standard test of floating-point handlers--it would come out to 20 unless they had rounding errors. |
:Cueball: That's awful. | :Cueball: That's awful. | ||
:Black Hat: Yeah, they dug through half their algorithms looking for the bug before they figured it out. | :Black Hat: Yeah, they dug through half their algorithms looking for the bug before they figured it out. | ||
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{{comic discussion}} | {{comic discussion}} |