Editing 571: Can't Sleep
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In this case, the least and greatest possible numbers are -32,768 and 32,767, which implies that the storage space used would be 16 bits. In addition, it's clear that the number is designated as a signed number, meaning that it can be either positive or negative. | In this case, the least and greatest possible numbers are -32,768 and 32,767, which implies that the storage space used would be 16 bits. In addition, it's clear that the number is designated as a signed number, meaning that it can be either positive or negative. | ||
| β | However, even if Cueball had this limitation, it would never actually pose a problem. By 32,767 sheep, at a rate of one sheep per second, Cueball has been counting for 9.101 hours (or about 9 hours 6 minutes). This would signify that he has extreme insomnia and probably needs treatment, and also that he has spent the entire night counting, and therefore would just get up and start the day rather than count sheep all over again from -32,768. | + | However, even if Cueball had this limitation, it would never actually pose a problem. By 32,767 sheep, at a rate of one sheep per second, Cueball has been counting for 9.101 hours (or about 9 hours 6 minutes). This would signify that he has extreme insomnia and probably needs treatment, and also that he has spent the entire night counting, and therefore would just get up and start the day rather than count sheep all over again from -32,768. Moreover, according to an experiment conducted by researchers at Oxford University, ''counting sheep is actually an inferior means of inducing sleep'' (see also the {{w|Counting sheep|Wikipedia article}}). |
The title text refers to the 1968 Philip K. Dick science fiction novel ''{{w|Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?}}'', which was adapted into the perhaps more widely known Ridley Scott directed 1982 film ''Blade Runner''. The implication is that if we ever do create androids that dream of electric sheep, we should make sure to give them sufficient storage space to store numbers large enough such that an arithmetic overflow will be far less likely to occur, even if they count for a long time. A "long int" depends on machine architecture, but it typically consists of four bytes rather than two, so instead of being limited to a range from -32,768 to 32,767 the number will be capable of storing numbers from -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647, which would take 68.1 years to exhaust (at the rate of 1 sheep/sec). "sheepCount" is a possible name for a variable to be used in a computer program. Declaring a variable tells the computer that it should allocate a portion of memory to be associated with the variable name given. No spaces are used because variables cannot contain spaces, for a reason that would take a little too long to properly explain here. | The title text refers to the 1968 Philip K. Dick science fiction novel ''{{w|Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?}}'', which was adapted into the perhaps more widely known Ridley Scott directed 1982 film ''Blade Runner''. The implication is that if we ever do create androids that dream of electric sheep, we should make sure to give them sufficient storage space to store numbers large enough such that an arithmetic overflow will be far less likely to occur, even if they count for a long time. A "long int" depends on machine architecture, but it typically consists of four bytes rather than two, so instead of being limited to a range from -32,768 to 32,767 the number will be capable of storing numbers from -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647, which would take 68.1 years to exhaust (at the rate of 1 sheep/sec). "sheepCount" is a possible name for a variable to be used in a computer program. Declaring a variable tells the computer that it should allocate a portion of memory to be associated with the variable name given. No spaces are used because variables cannot contain spaces, for a reason that would take a little too long to properly explain here. | ||
