On Sun, 21 Oct 2007 01:20:47 -0000, Daniel Pitts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>On Oct 20, 2:04 pm, llothar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> > I love math. I respect Math. I'm nothing but a menial servant to >> > Mathematics. >> >> Programming and use cases are not maths. Many mathematics are >> the worst programmers i've seen because they want to solve things and >> much more often you just need heuristics. Once they are into exact >> world they loose there capability to see the factor of relevance in >> algorithms. >> >> And they almost never match the mental model that the average >> user has about a problem. > >I read somewhere that for large primes, using Fermat's Little Theorem >test is *good enough* for engineers because the chances of it being >wrong are less likely than a cosmic particle hitting your CPU at the >exact instant to cause a failure of the same sort. This is the >primary difference between engineers and mathematicians. An attractive person of the opposite sex stands on the other side of the room. You are told that your approach must be made in a series of discrete steps during which you may close half the remaining distance between yourself and the other person. Mathematician: "But I'll never get there!" Engineer: "I'll get close enough." -- for email reply remove "/" from address -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
