[Sussex] Challenge

[Geoff Teale]

Steve wrote:
------------
> Ohhhh a challenge

Indeed :)

> Here is my solution when working in base 2 throughout:
> 
> $ bc
> scale=99
> ibase=2
> obase=2
> 1.0 / 1010.0
> 1010.0 * (1.0 / 1010.0)
> quit
> $
> 
> Tested on a Sparc 64 (Solaris 8) and Cygwin and both produced 
> a 1.0000...000 result.  I haven't published to output from 
> bc, I'll leave that up to the judge.
>
> Do I pass?

Well, I don't have bc to hand to check your working, but in any case, no you
don't.  Any exisiting tool that does result in the correct answer is using a
"fudge factor" in software for common cases - this is not uncommon for luser
tools, VB and Excel on Windows behave similarly.  You have yet to show a
binary representation of the decimal fraction 0.1, your underlying
represntation was in accordance to IEEE 754, and thus only an aproximation
expressed to 53bits. 

> Mine's a pint of ale (Horsham Best Bitter is quite drinkable).

Now, now, don't jump the gun ;)  Given that this challenge is not possible
in the bounds of Mathematics as we now understan it, I am looking for the
best _arguement_, please try again.

-- 
GJT
Free Software, Free Society. 
http://www.fsf.org   http://www.gnu.org


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