Properties of Floating-Point Numbers

Richard L. Branham
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Richard L. Branham: Jefe Area Matematicas y Del Centro Regional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas

Chapter Chapter 1 in Scientific Data Analysis, 1990, pp 1-19 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Although the topic of this book is the solution by computer of overdetermined systems, it is advisable to begin with a discussion of floating-point numbers. Aside from occasional projects of a special nature, scientific computations are carried out with floating-point numbers. In the early days of computing, when floating-point hardware was not available, fixed-point was used, and we can still find early papers in the Hterature that are based on fixed-point calculations. But the advantages of floating-point are so manifest that the hardware to implement it was soon made or floating-point operations simulated; simulation is still the rule with microcomputers, although floating-point coprocessors are becoming more common. If, then, our algorithms are executed with floating-point operations, a measure of prudence dictates that we be familiar with the workings of floating-point.

Keywords: Error Growth; Decimal Digit; Machine Epsilon; Finite Word Length; Extended Precision (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1990
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DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4612-3362-6_1

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