"John.Cowan" <xxxxxx@reutershealth.com> writes:

> Thomas Bushnell BSG scripsit:
>
>> > While they seem silly for small integers, inexact integers make sense
>> > for huge values. For example, people often round huge integers to the
>> > nearest million or billion. An even better example: Avogadro's number is
>> > an integer, but it should not be represented as an exact integer,
>> > because its exact value is unknown.
>>
>> What makes you think Avogadro's number is an integer?
>
> A bad example, no doubt.  But the current world population, though
> unquestionably an integer, is not exactly known, and it is quite plausible
> to say that it is 64########.

Yep, that's a better example indeed. ;)

I don't disagree at all with the *real* point that inexact integers
have useful applications; I agree that they do.

Thomas