• finitebanjo@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    27 days ago

    You can do all of math in binary, it isn’t just for computers. In fact, the proof for “Russian Peasant Multiplication” was written in binary.

    • ziggurat@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      27 days ago

      So you can do all mathematical operations in binary, but you can’t represent all numbers in binary like 0.3, which is a repeating number, and had the same issues as a number like 1/3 in decimal where you can’t avoid rounding errors

      It’s worth noting that 1/3 is also a repeating number in binary. 0.01010101…

      While 0.3 is in binary 0.0100110011001100…

      • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        edit-2
        27 days ago

        I’m not sure what sort of point you think you’re making but 0.0100110011 in binary is only 0.065% off from 0.3, but how often would you organically encounter 0.3?

        Many fractions in decimal are also repeating numbers or very long trailing numbers, I especially encounter a lot when working with time which is base 60.