cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/8653164

Transcript:

Cueball: Hey, check it out: eπ−π is 19.999099979. That’s weird.
Black Hat: Yeah. That’s how I got kicked out of the ACM in college.
Cueball: …what?

Black Hat: During a competition, I told the programmers on our team that eπ−π was a standard test of floating-point handlers – it would come out to 20 unless they had rounding errors.

Cueball: That’s awful.
Black Hat: Yeah, they dug through half their algorithms looking for the bug before they figured it out.

Hover text:

Also, I hear the 4th root of (92 + 192/22) is pi.

  • sharkwellington@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    I get that it’s a comic but this doesn’t feel like a conversation that would ever occur in real life. Granted I don’t hang out with programmers or mathematicians so maybe it’s more plausible than you would think.

    • Wodge@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      6 months ago

      My kid is studying physics in university, and she comes home and tells me physics anecdotes which I don’t understand, so I always reply “That’s Numberwang!”.

      So I can see these types of conversations happening between math and programming types.

    • MajorHavoc@programming.devEnglish
      1·
      6 months ago

      would ever occur in real life

      That’s sort of part of the joke. ACM is the “Association for Computing Machinery” one of the biggest and oldest and nerdiest computer clubs.

      ACM hosts all kinds of SIGs (special interest groups) - clubs dedicated to interest in (sometimes deeply esoteric) aspects of computer science. For a few of them, hand-coding a new specialized fast floating point calculation code during a contest could easily come up.

      And ACM has a code of ethics, so it is technically possible to get kicked out.

      So there’s technically a situation where lying to a peer, on purpose, in a particularly mean context (such as a competition) about a floating point number computation - could actually get someone kicked out of ACM.

      Edit: Additonal context that helps the joke - my experiences with ACM have all been super chill , relaxed and friendly. So “I got kicked out of ACM” is also a “you did what?!” setup for the joke.

    • Thoth19@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      4 months ago

      This is totally a conversation that would happen in real life. I’ve watched a friend of mine try to convince someone who had a bit much to drink that the primes are closed under multiplication for an hour. Absolutely hysterical