Talk:Mystery Crates/@comment-5399625-20120829033757/@comment-5116140-20120831170607

Sorry VC,

No where in this thread was it ever intended to state that the "rounding error" was caused by numbers being stored as base 2 in the computer. There are two separate effects, human rounding and computer  precision working here.

1. All the rounding error was caused by humans at TV who converted x.25 to x.3

and x.75 to x.8 A plausible mechanism for this was shown in the Excel table where the display was changed from 2 decimals to only 1 in base ten. So the rounding error is exclusively a base 10 thingie by sloppy humans.

This is the same as a shopper telling a cashier at a store that their quarter, or $0.25, is really worth 30 cents. Cashier won't be too happy.

2. Separate from this human error, was an apparent claim that 3.8 was correct since the data file showed it as

3.8% chance is 3.79999999999998.

This is what you are referring to. It is due to the limited precision of a base 10 number being stored in the computer using base 2. The number stored was the already rounded 3.8, in base 10, as entered only after human error.

In the thread it was suggested that there was no need to be so precise, and in fact I agree. A few of us were merely curious why the numbers did not add up to 100% as they must by the first law of probability.

The answer is entirely careless humans rounding in base ten, prior to any numbers being stored in this in-game file.