this post was submitted on 18 May 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] henfredemars 46 points 2 years ago (32 children)

In computer engineering we have positive and negative zero.

[–] PlexSheep 13 points 2 years ago (5 children)

What do you mean? In two's complement, there is only one zero.

[–] yetAnotherUser@feddit.de 39 points 2 years ago

IEEE 754 floating point numbers have a signed bit at the front, causing +0 and -0 to exist.

[–] henfredemars 18 points 2 years ago

Specifically I was referring to standard float representation which permits signed zeros. However, other comments provide some interesting examples also.

[–] hungrybread@hexbear.net 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] mexicancartel@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] hungrybread@hexbear.net 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I assume no one at this point

[–] mexicancartel@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 years ago

I think 1's complement only existed to facilitate 2's complement. Otherwise its stupid

[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] PlexSheep 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Floating point numbers are not possible in two's complement, besides that, what is your point? 0,99999999... is probably the same as 1.

[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yes, mathematically it's the same, but in physics there's a guy named Heisenberg who denies that 0.99999... really gets to 1. There is always this difference, for a mathematician infinite is not a problem, but for a physicist it is, plus a very big one.

[–] PlexSheep 2 points 2 years ago

True, it sounds like that might be a problem if we consider that physics has to be between math and computer science.

(Have a nice day)

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