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Ask HN: Why does OS X Spotlight's calculator assert N/0 = N?

5 pointsby whelchelabout 8 years ago
Perhaps a trivial question, but I think it&#x27;s interesting how digital devices handle mathematical inconsistencies&#x2F;absurdities.<p>I can&#x27;t say I&#x27;ve seen this sort of &quot;screw it&quot; approach before. Anyone out there know why this is the case with Mac?<p>If anyone is curious, the &quot;Calculator&quot; app returns quite considerately, &quot;Not a number&quot;, so they don&#x27;t seem to be run by the same engine. I also tried in spotlight with 0.0 to see if it was a float&#x2F;int distinction, but no dice.<p>Note I&#x27;m running 10.10.5 (Yosemite)

3 comments

kogirabout 8 years ago
Doesn&#x27;t do that for me: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.dropbox.com&#x2F;s&#x2F;t3igrnerpzu26gn&#x2F;Screenshot%202017-03-23%2002.26.18.png?dl=0" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.dropbox.com&#x2F;s&#x2F;t3igrnerpzu26gn&#x2F;Screenshot%202017-...</a><p>macOS Sierra
0942v8653about 8 years ago
Apple&#x27;s Spotlight calculators have had worse problems: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;UMYtIDi.jpg" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;UMYtIDi.jpg</a>
andreygrehovabout 8 years ago
I think it doesn&#x27;t do anything TBH. The N was simply the last successful output as you were typing.