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    William Kahan

    Jew Score:
    12

    I4

    O4

    K4
    June 5, 1933 —

    As everyone knows, computers convert everything to binary code. Like this website, for instance. It's all a bunch of 1s and 0s as far as the computer is concerned. A bunch of AWESOME 1s and 0s, we might add.

    Converting is quite simple for integers: you just need to find its binary form. 2 becomes 10, 17 becomes 10001, 24601 becomes 110000000011001, etc. But what if you need to convert 2.5, 17.999, or, G-d forbid, 24601.0000000001?

    This is where things get complex, and we honestly don't want to bore you. Let's just say that it's incredibly difficult to get right — and incredibly important, because if computers can't do math, what's the point of them anyway? (Porn, you say? Ha! If computers couldn't do math properly, all porn would come out pixelated!)

    Thankfully, there was William "Velvel" Kahan, a Canadian Jew, who, back in 1985, came up with the basic algorithm to convert decimals. He has been called "The Father of Floating Point" and won the Turing Award for his effort. Kahan's algorithm is still used by pretty much every computer today.

    Now let's convert this whole profile to binary!

    Verdict: Jew.

    July 1, 2020

    See Also

    Immanuel Bonfils

    Lee Felsenstein

    Andrew Grove

    Abraham Lempel and Jacob Ziv

    Alan Perlis
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