next up previous contents
Next: Providing a semantics for Up: General Semantics Previous: Quantities

Finite-precision Arithmetic

Because this language is intended to be a vehicle in which algebraic and differential equations, along with other representations, are used to specify and predict the behavior of physical systems, we inherit the problems of real-valued arithmetic and its associated impact on soundness and completeness. Though a model may represent a valid characterization of the world, and the formal, infinite precision entailment operator may be sound with respect to our stated semantics, the underlying computational inference procedure will almost certainly not be a sound instantiation of that entailment operator.



Tom Mostek
Wed Jan 21 13:00:43 CST 1998