the.com/floats
The internet's polite way of saying 'I didn't do the math but it feels right.'
means To 'float' an idea or number is to toss it out tentatively, without firm proof behind it, just to see if it holds up.
from From 'float' meaning to hover or drift unanchored — like something buoyant on water, not sunk by the weight of verification. The sense of 'floating' a proposal or figure (letting it drift into conversation to test reactions) extends naturally from this: an idea that floats hasn't sunk under scrutiny yet, mostly because no one's pushed it underwater to check.
- 0.1 + 0.2
- equals 0.30000000000000004 in most languages
- standard
- IEEE 754 defines how nearly every computer rounds
- tradeoff
- infinite real numbers squeezed into finite binary bits
- alternative
- integers are exact; floats are exact-ish