[thaumasiotes]

>> if the number is close to epsilon, the error bars on 1/x would be huge.

> Sure, but what's the use case for mathematics where you don't know what side of an asymptote you're on?

Knowing which side of the asymptote you're on does not solve this problem or even ameliorate it.

[yarg]

That's not what I'm saying - it seems to me to be programmer error that such a question is being asked (an exception should be thrown regardless, since the result is not of a usable quality).