An Interesting Excel Bug

Joel has an interesting post about a current Excel 2007 bug.

Here is the short explanation given by Joel. What is 3 x 1/3, if I ask you? You would rattle off “1, of course”. What if I tell you - “note down 1/3 in decimal on paper, then multiply by 3” ? Now since there is no finite decimal representation of 1/3 on paper(you will keep writing 0.333333333333 …. forever), you will stop after a few decimal places. And when you multiply by 3, you get 0.99999, which is not the same precise number as 1.

The same problem arises in Excel because of the way Excel works with numbers. Check the article for complete Excel specific explanation.