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Schnutzel t1_j23vg43 wrote

Reply to comment by mfb- in ELI5: How do computers compute gigantic mathematical calculations? by DryEstablishment2

Also, by using floating point numbers, you can make the calculations a lot faster by sacrificing precision. Instead of storing 2838393^1024 (which is a huge number) you only store the most significant digits and how many digits it has.

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mfb- t1_j241eji wrote

It depends on the application. 2838393^1024 has 6600 digits, which is no problem for modern computers to calculate exactly in well under a second.

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Schnutzel t1_j24265s wrote

True, but when the exponent is 76000 and you start multiplying numbers with tens of thousands of digits, it starts to rack up.

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