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This is a simple program designed to figure out how many significant digits are used for floating point. The idea is simple: Pick a nice repeating fraction such 1/3 (0.333333), print it, and see how many digits you get.
However, the results puzzled this programmer. He knew the computer couldn't be that stupid. So what happened?
1 /************************************************
2 * divide -- Program to figure out how many *
3 * digits are printed in floating point *
4 * by print 1/3 or 0.333333. *
5 ************************************************/
6 #include <iostream>
7
8 int main()
9 {
10 float result; // Result of the divide
11
12 result = 1/3; // Assign result something
13
14 std::cout << "Result is " << result << '\n';
15 return (0);
16 }
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One weather service computer required the meteorologist to enter rainfall in inches. Now these people were used to dealing with hundredths of inches so when you asked them how much rain fell today, they would say, "50" meaning 50/100 of an inch or half an inch.
However to enter this into the computer you had to type "0.50." One fellow forgot this and entered the rain for the day as "50." Now 50 inches is a lot of rain. An awful lot of rain. The computer caught the error, however, and issued an appropriate message:
Build an ark. Gather the animals two by two. . .
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