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Published on: August 28, 2021
Interactive numerals
Harold Thimbleby1, Paul Cairns2
1Department of Computer Science, University of Swansea, Wales SA2 8PP, UK.
Abstract:
Although Arabic numerals (like '2016' and '3.14') are ubiquitous, we show that in interactive computer applications they are often misleading and surprisingly unreliable. We introduce interactive numerals as a new concept and show, like Roman numerals and Arabic numerals, interactive numerals introduce another way of using and thinking about numbers. Properly understanding interactive numerals is essential for all computer applications that involve numerical data entered by users, including finance, medicine, aviation and science.
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