FLOATING POINT MATH

[Bent-Winged Angel]

I am not a math person.  Although I am trying & want to learn  In one program I'm working with I consistanly get the message "invalid floating point operation" Then program "freezes up" & I need to restart PC.  Can anyone explain this in very simplistic terms?  Would be grateful! 

[hermann]

A floating point value is something like 3.5 or 1.0*10**3.
A floating point error can happen if your computer performs an operation like:
float_value := 3.5/0.0;
The result may be infinit and can not be stored on a computer as a real value.

A computer has a maximum value that a float number can have on your computer.
If you create a number that is bigger the program will run into trouble.
new_float_value := fload_value_maximum + 1;

[Bent-Winged Angel]

A floating point value is something like 3.5 or 1.0*10**3.
A floating point error can happen if your computer performs an operation like:
float_value := 3.5/0.0;
The result may be infinit and can not be stored on a computer as a real value.

A computer has a maximum value that a float number can have on your computer.
If you create a number that is bigger the program will run into trouble.
new_float_value := fload_value_maximum + 1;

Thanks soo much hermann for giving me the "preliminaries" of floating points.  Definately my PC.  Also I have noticed that different programs handle it differently.  Some will give "floating point" as just one option in rendering. Some let you test the speed of it.  Or an almost endless loop error...