Two Plus Two Equals Five?

One of my favorite quotes is "Two plus two equals five for extremely large values of two." If you know me, you know that I love silly quotes like this. Another one of my favorites is "There are three kinds of people: those who can count and those who can't."

I asked about how "two plus two could equal five for extremely large values of two," and I got an answer that made a lot of sense. Little did I know that this phrase probably originated from something that probably is simply from computer programming.

Anybody who has ever used a calculator that is at least as a fancy as a simply scientific calculator knows that decimal places can be fixed.

However, when these things are put into a calculator or a computer program, the way they register can be quite different.

Sometimes the numbers are rounded and then the total of the numbers are added. Other times a total is added and then an answer is given and the decimal place is rounded. So, they are not truly extremely large values of two, but the original number may be 2.3.

If the original number is 2.3, this is what happens in those two cases.

When 2.3 and 2.3 are added together, the answer is 4.6. If decimal place is set to 0 decimal places, things change. As most people know 2.3 rounds to 2. If the number were 2.5, it would round to 3.

So, with all the numbers being rounded before a total is given, the equation then becomes 2 plus 2. "Two plus two equals four," which obviously does not match the first silly statement.

However, the other scenario still exists. Rather than having each number rounded when put into the problem, the entire equation is added. So, 2.3 and 2.3 equals 4.6. When 4.6 is rounded to a number with no decimal places, it becomes 5 because the number behind the decimal is 5 or larger.

Even though the decimal places are not gone while the operation is being performed, if the numbers are shown, it is not going to show "2.3," bur rather, will show "2."

So, the equation will, indeed, read "2+2=5."