this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2024
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xkcd

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cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/8653164


Transcript:

Cueball: Hey, check it out: e^π^−π is 19.999099979. That's weird.
Black Hat: Yeah. That's how I got kicked out of the ACM in college.
Cueball: ...what?

Black Hat: During a competition, I told the programmers on our team that e^π^−π was a standard test of floating-point handlers -- it would come out to 20 unless they had rounding errors.

Cueball: That's awful.
Black Hat: Yeah, they dug through half their algorithms looking for the bug before they figured it out.

Hover text:

Also, I hear the 4th root of (9^2^ + 19^2^/22) is pi.

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[–] sharkwellington@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (10 children)

I get that it's a comic but this doesn't feel like a conversation that would ever occur in real life. Granted I don't hang out with programmers or mathematicians so maybe it's more plausible than you would think.

[–] Thoth19@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago

This is totally a conversation that would happen in real life. I've watched a friend of mine try to convince someone who had a bit much to drink that the primes are closed under multiplication for an hour. Absolutely hysterical

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