This stuff is fascinating. It seems Carmack & the ID guys made a better approximation hack for sqrt than a theoretically correct approximation made by a mathematician. This is I think Carmack’s essence, he just makes stuff that works.
Written by MM. Posted at 9:23 am on August 19th, 2010
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The trick was first used by SGI, not Carmack or id Software. He just made it known.
I can’t recall where(stackoverflow?), but someone did some tests with the magic number and came up with more accurate one, so the original isn’t the best one. May google be strong with you.
i dont know where you use this!
please explain =)
haha this comic suits it perfectly http://xkcd.com/664/
It is used for calculating square root. I use it everywhere:)
Clawbug: the better number is in that article. You should edit the wikipedia if you know that info for sure.
Haahhaha. I’m not too bright today. Great post!