[Lendal]

Okay, I'll defend floating point numbers. The choice of floating point over decimal represents the choice of science over money. In science, it's more important to have a number system that represents everything from the infinitely small to the infinitely large, rather than one that has perfect precision. Because in nature, perfect precision does not exist. It doesn't matter what pi is to perfect accuracy because there are no perfectly round circles in reality. Only in money and mathematics do people really care about perfect precision. In the real world, precision is negotiable.

I think that's a good lesson for kids.

[rhn_mk1]

Yes, but actually no. Precision becomes important once you start digging in. Calculate the GPS time dilation without sufficient precision and you'll be in trouble. Go down to quantum physics to discover that the exact ratio of mass between the electron and proton might matter for your nuclear reactor.

[worksonmine]

You don't even need to get that specific, even web developers encounter this sooner or later, often as a UI bug in what should be really simple math. Then one day you wonder "what the fuck are all these zeroes? Oooooh..."

That's how I learned about it years ago.