Importance of mathematical exactness.
Patrick Carney (pcarney@dimacs.rutgers.edu)
Wed, 13 Jan 99 23:15:33 EST
Hi-
I saw an interesting article in the paper at school today. I thought it was
the NY Times, but I cannot seem to find it on their website. Anyhow, it seems
that there is an error in most computers which will cause them to be off for
a week when they change their clocks to daylight savings time. It talked
about what people might have this as a problem. But the interesting thing to
me was that the reason is that some programmer wrote < when it should have
been <=. How often have we all seen that as well as had students complain if
we take off for it. Here was a whole article stressing how important such a
difference is.
Hope this is of some use in your classes.
As ever,
Bro. Pat Carney