Open your favorite actionscript editor and type:

var n:Number=123456789012345672;
trace(n);
// outputs: 123456789012345660

or simply:

trace(123456789012345672);
// outputs: 123456789012345660

now try incrementing the number by one:

trace(123456789012345673);
// outputs: 123456789012345680

oh dear… IEEE-754 is the specification on which the Number class of actionsctipt/javascript (all ecma…) and many others language is based.

IEEE-754 sucks!

Reading some documentation this format should support 53 digits numbers… but seems kinda different.

Ok ok those were high numbers… but try this:

trace(0.1*3);
// outputs: 0.30000000000000004
trace(0.1*6);
// outputs: 0.6000000000000001
trace(0.1*9);
// outputs: 0.9
trace(0.1*12);
// outputs: 1.2000000000000002
trace(0.1*15);
// outputs: 1.5

I was thinking to use actionscript to collaboratively solve some of Project Euler problems… just for fun, but I don’t think I will waste just a single line of code on this from now on.
This really disappoints me, I mean, if computers cannot either do math, why the hell am I still sitting here?