# Computer Science and Irrational Numbers

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-science-and-irrational-numbers/506916>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 19, 2009, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-science-and-irrational-numbers/506916 "2009-08-19T03:40:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\
**Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-science-and-irrational-numbers/506916/81 "2009-08-21T23:35:48Z")

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> [@ZenBeam](#):
>
> **Napier** , are you mixing up multiplication and division in your description, or does the algorithm really multiply to do division?

Not mixing it up - yes, the algorithm does a few multiplications and other things to converge on a division result. It seems reasonable that if the goal is to estimate a function over the decimal space (1,1) to (2,2), and then divide it up into many smaller panels, they are so small and predictably curved and there is so much economic incentive to tune an estimation method, it could work quite well.

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