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Re: Off topic question for the lean season



Kalyan Mukherjea wrote:
> (* 1.25 1.44)1.7999999999999998 !!!
> Does this indicate a fault in the Lisp compiler or an error in the
> multiplication table of my Intel 2 chipset?

Neither.  The Lisp interpreter is using binary floating-point arithmetic,
rather than decimal arithmetic.  Actually, this calculation is done by
the floating-point hardware on your chip.
1.8 is a nice decimal fraction: 9/5, but it repeats in binary.

HTH,
-- Chris

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