Why computers suck at maths
Computers might struggle to exhibit intelligent behaviour, but blindly performing arithmetic calculations is surely their forte. Or is it?
The failure of Google’s online calculator and Excel’s apparent inability to give correct answers to simple calculations are both well-known problems among programmers, but these aren’t really bugs in the normal sense of the word. Instead they’re just a consequence of the fact that computers suck at maths.
Computers perform calculations in quite a different way from the methods that humans use to do arithmetic – and that means that they habitually come up with the wrong answer. Here we investigate some of the shocking consequences of this revelation before delving into the reason why computers suck at maths.
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