understanding the need for multiple number types lot of new developers (and even some older oneshave hard time understanding why there is need for more than one numeric type after allhumans can use just one kind of number to understand the need for multiple number typesyou have to understand little about how computer works with numbers an integer is stored in the computer as simply series of bits that the computer reads directly value of in binary equates to value of in decimal on the other handnumbers that have decimal points are stored in an entirely different manner think back to all those classes you slept through on exponents in school -they actu ally come in handy sometimes floating-point number is stored as sign bit (plus or minus)mantissa (the fractional part of the number)and exponent (the power of (some texts use the term significand in place of mantissa -the terms are interchangeable to obtain the floating-point valueyou use the equationvalue mantissa ^exponent at one timecomputers all used different floating-point representationsbut they all use the ieee- standard now you can read about this standard at ieee org/groups/ full explana tion of precisely how floating-point numbers work is outside the scope of this bookbut you can read fairly understandable descrip tion at com/tutorial/floating_pointunderstanding_floating_point_ representation html nothing helps you understand concept like playing with the values you can find really interesting float ing-point number converter at -schmidt net/floatconverterieee htmlwhere you can click the individual bits (to turn them off or onand see the floating-point number that results as you might imaginefloating-point num bers tend to consume more space in memory because of their complexity in additionthey use an entirely different area of the processor -one that works more slowly than the part used for integer math finallyintegers are preciseas contrasted to floating-point numberswhich can' precisely represent some numbersso you get an approximation instead howeverfloatingpoint variables can store much larger numbers the bottom line is that decimals are unavoid able in the real worldso you need floating-point numbersbut using integers when you can reduces the amount of memory your application consumes and helps it work faster there are many trade-offs in computer systemsand this one is unavoidable understanding boolean values it may seem amazingbut computers always give you straight answera computer will never provide "maybeas output every answer you get is either true or false in factthere is an entire branch of mathematics called boolean algebra that was originally defined by george boole ( super-geek of his timethat computers rely upon to make decisions contrary to common beliefboolean algebra has existed since -long before the time of computers