Editing Distributive property (section)

== Distributivity and rounding ==

In approximate arithmetic, such as [[floating-point arithmetic]], the distributive property of multiplication (and division) over addition may fail because of the limitations of [[arithmetic precision]].  For example, the identity <math>1/3 + 1/3 + 1/3 = (1 + 1 + 1) / 3</math> fails in [[decimal arithmetic]], regardless of the number of [[significant digit]]s. Methods such as [[banker's rounding]] may help in some cases, as may increasing the precision used, but ultimately some calculation errors are inevitable.