How do you solve a quadratic equation?

[摘要] The nature of the floating-point number system of digital computers is explained to a reader whose university mathematical background is very limited. The possibly large errors in using mathematical algorithms blindly with floating-point computation are illustrated by the formula for solving a quadratic equation. An accurate way of solving a quadratic is outlined. A few general remarks are made about computational mathematics, including the backwards analysis of rounding error.

[学科分类] 计算机科学（综合）