Talk:One half

This is the only page on a fraction that I intend to create. But if others create pages on other fractions, such as the ones that get code points in the Unicode Number Forms block, and are in common use, I would be glad to work on those. Fractions that approximate π are probably best only mentioned in the article on π. PrimeFan 17:12, 11 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Floating Point Quandary

I will eventually figure out how to write 1/2 in single precision floating point. If someone knows how to do it, please add it to this page, but please don't tell me directly, I want to figure it out on my own. PrimeFan 17:12, 11 Feb 2004 (UTC)

User:Toby Bartels added the floating point a few months ago. More recently, a well-intentioned rookie user added some unlikely precision errors. I've seen glitches in calculators and computers, but no calculator or computer has ever told me that 1/2 = 0.4999999... Since two is divisible by the base numbers of the common bases we humans regularly use (binary, octal, decimal and hexadecimal) I see no need to list unlikely precision errors. If we do a page on 1/3 or 1/7, that's a different story. Anton Mravcek 17:59, 30 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I don't think those were intended to be values with error. They are proper alternate representations of 1/2 in a place value system: the binary one, for instance, holds because the sum of the geometric series $\sum _{n=2}^{\infty }2^{-n}=1/2$. 4pq1injbok 01:56, 1 Jul 2004 (UTC)

4pq1injbok might be new here, but he knows what he's talking about. I tried putting in the left side of that equation into Mathematica 4.2 and sure enough it replied 1/2. Then to N[%], it replied 0.5. So if there are no further objections from you, Anton, I will restore the "unlikely precision errors" to the Docuan table. PrimeFan 21:25, 1 Jul 2004 (UTC)

I still don't see where the 0.49999999... comes from. Anton Mravcek 22:39, 1 Jul 2004 (UTC)

I see there's been some discussion of this at Talk:Cantor's diagonal argument. Perhaps we should create the page alluded to there on numbers with two different decimal expansions. 4pq1injbok 23:58, 1 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Fascinating. I will print out that page and do some serious thinking on it. Anton Mravcek 20:49, 6 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Latin prefixes for fractions

I know the Latin numerical prefixes for whole numbers 1-1000, but does anyone know about fractions?? The most well known are 1/2 (semi-) and 3/2 (sesqui-) Any others anyone knows?? 66.245.123.29 18:55, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC)