Fixed-point computation
Imagine you have a toy car that always moves forward in little steps. You want to tell the car how far to move each time, but you can only use whole numbers (like 1 or 2 or 3) instead of decimals (like 1.5 or 2.6).
This is kind of like fixed-point computation! When we're doing math on a computer, we often use fixed-point numbers instead of decimals. Fixed-point numbers are numbers that have a fixed number of digits after the decimal point (like 2 or 4), and they can only be whole numbers when you write them down.
So, let's say you want to add 1.5 and 2.6 on your computer with fixed-point computation. First, you have to convert those decimal numbers to fixed-point numbers with a certain number of digits after the decimal point (let's say 2, for this example).
1.5 becomes 150, because we move the decimal point to the right two places to get rid of the decimal.
2.6 becomes 260, because we do the same thing.
Now we can add 150 and 260 (just like if they were regular whole numbers), and get 410.
But wait a minute, we need to turn 410 back into a decimal number! We do this by moving the decimal point back to where it should be, which is two places to the left (because we added two fixed-point numbers with two digits after the decimal point). So 410 becomes 4.10, and that's our answer!
Fixed-point computation is like playing with toy cars that can only move in little steps. We have to be careful to use whole numbers that have a certain number of digits after the decimal point, and we have to convert back and forth between fixed-points and decimals. But if we do it right, we can do lots of math and still get the right answer!
This is kind of like fixed-point computation! When we're doing math on a computer, we often use fixed-point numbers instead of decimals. Fixed-point numbers are numbers that have a fixed number of digits after the decimal point (like 2 or 4), and they can only be whole numbers when you write them down.
So, let's say you want to add 1.5 and 2.6 on your computer with fixed-point computation. First, you have to convert those decimal numbers to fixed-point numbers with a certain number of digits after the decimal point (let's say 2, for this example).
1.5 becomes 150, because we move the decimal point to the right two places to get rid of the decimal.
2.6 becomes 260, because we do the same thing.
Now we can add 150 and 260 (just like if they were regular whole numbers), and get 410.
But wait a minute, we need to turn 410 back into a decimal number! We do this by moving the decimal point back to where it should be, which is two places to the left (because we added two fixed-point numbers with two digits after the decimal point). So 410 becomes 4.10, and that's our answer!
Fixed-point computation is like playing with toy cars that can only move in little steps. We have to be careful to use whole numbers that have a certain number of digits after the decimal point, and we have to convert back and forth between fixed-points and decimals. But if we do it right, we can do lots of math and still get the right answer!