James Musselman <PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU> wrote:

> Scott Dattalo wrote:
>
> > 1/10 = 0.00011001100110011001100110011001100 ..... (base 2)
> >
> > This can be rewritten to emphasize the optimization:
> > 1/10 = 2 * (3/16 + 3/256 + 3/4096 + ... + 3/(2^(4*m)) )
>
> Isn't the above line wrong?  Isn't 2 * 3/16 greater than 1/10?  Or
> am I missing something?

You're not missing anything, James.  Scott's explanation (and
ASCII-art equations) were all excellent, but he screwed up slightly
in that last line; it should be:

    1/10 = 3 + 3/16 + 3/256 + 3/4096 + ... + 3/(2^(4*m))
           ---------------------------------------------
                                32

-Andy

Andrew Warren - fastfwd@ix.netcom.com
Fast Forward Engineering, Vista, California
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/2499