The following sections of this BookRags Literature Study Guide is offprint from Gale's For Students Series: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Works: Introduction, Author Biography, Plot Summary, Characters, Themes, Style, Historical Context, Critical Overview, Criticism and Critical Essays, Media Adaptations, Topics for Further Study, Compare & Contrast, What Do I Read Next?, For Further Study, and Sources.
(c)1998-2002; (c)2002 by Gale. Gale is an imprint of The Gale Group, Inc., a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Gale and Design and Thomson Learning are trademarks used herein under license.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: "Social Concerns", "Thematic Overview", "Techniques", "Literary Precedents", "Key Questions", "Related Titles", "Adaptations", "Related Web Sites". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults: "About the Author", "Overview", "Setting", "Literary Qualities", "Social Sensitivity", "Topics for Discussion", "Ideas for Reports and Papers". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
All other sections in this Literature Study Guide are owned and copyrighted by BookRags, Inc.
Precision is the exactitude with which a number represents some quantity. The more digits a number has to the right of its decimal point, the more precise it can be. For example, it is more precise to say that one meter equals 39.37 inches than to say that one meter equals 39.4 inches. A number format allowing two digits to the right of the decimal point (as in "39.37") permits the expression of differences as small as a hundredth (the difference between, say, 39.37 and 39.36), and is said to be precise to one part in a hundred.
A typical floating-point number in a digital computer has a fractional component that is 24 bits long, giving a precision of one part in 224. That is, for a given exponent, differences as small as 1/224 = 5.9 x 10-8 can be expressed using a normal floating-point number, which is also called a "single-precision number." Greater precision, if required, can be achieved in two ways. The simpler is to make use of a standard floating-point number format having more bits in its fractional component; this need is filled by double-precision numbers. The IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers) double-precision format, for example, has a 52-bit fraction, over twice as many bits as the single-precision format. Double-precision arithmetic--the performance of a series of calculations using double-precision numbers--is a special case of multiple-precision arithmetic, computation in which more than one binary word is used to represent every single number. Multiple-precision arithmetic is both slower and more memory-intensive than single-precision arithmetic. It is slower because each multiple-precision number must be fed through the computer's central processing unit in fragments, and it is more memory-intensive because each multiple-precision number is at least twice the size of a single-precision number. Efficiency-conscious programmers do not invoke multiple precision carelessly.