astronomy

Pat Holmes Sterbenz

Pat Holmes Sterbenz is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Pat Holmes Sterbenz rather than just read about it. In short: Pat Holmes Sterbenz (July 30, 1927 – July 26, 2008) was an American mathematician and computer scientist. He worked at IBM and later was a professor of computer and information science at Brooklyn College.

Key takeaways

Pat Holmes Sterbenz belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Pat Holmes Sterbenz to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Pat Holmes Sterbenz from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Pat Holmes Sterbenz (July 30, 1927 – July 26, 2008) was an American mathematician and computer scientist. He worked at IBM and later was a professor of computer and information science at Brooklyn College. He is best known for his textbook Floating-Point Computation (1974), one of the first systematic treatments of floating-point arithmetic, and for the Sterbenz lemma named after him, which states conditions under which floating-point subtraction is exact.

Life Sterbenz was born in Ohio on July 30, 1927. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio, where he met Nancy Norton, whom he married in 1949; the couple had five children. In 1953 he received a PhD in mathematics from Ohio State University with the dissertation Some Topics in Cohomology Theory, written under the supervision of Paul V. Reichelderfer. Sterbenz then joined IBM, where he worked in the emerging field of computer science. At the IBM Systems Research Institute in New York City he taught a course on floating-point computation for several years, out of which his textbook grew. In the early 1970s he left IBM to become a professor of computer and information science at Brooklyn College. A longtime resident of Larchmont, New York, Sterbenz died on July 26, 2008, after several weeks of hospitalization.

Work Together with C. T. Fike, Sterbenz wrote two papers on optimal starting values for the computation of square roots by Newton's method. His book Floating-Point Computation presents floating-point arithmetic in a generalized form that allows for variations in radix and word length, and discusses the arithmetic of the IBM System/360 in detail. It contains the result now known as the Sterbenz lemma (Theorem 4.3.1): if y/2 ≤ x ≤ 2y, then the floating-point difference x − y is computed exactly. The lemma remains a standard tool in the error analysis of numerical algorithms under IEEE 754 arithmetic.

Selected publications Sterbenz, P. H.; Fike, C. T. (1969). "Optimal starting approximations for Newton's method". Mathematics of Computation. 23 (106): 313–318. doi:10.2307/2004425. JSTOR 2004425. MR 0245199. Fike, C. T.; Sterbenz, P. H. (1971). "Minimax approximations subject to a constraint". Mathematics of Computation. 25 (114): 295–298. doi:10.2307/2004923. JSTOR 2004923. MR 0303176. Sterbenz, Pat H. (1974). Floating-Point Computation. Prentice-Hall Series in Automatic Computation. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0-13-322495-3. MR 0349062. Sterbenz, Pat H. (1975). Understandable arithmetic. 3rd IEEE Symposium on Computer Arithmetic (ARITH). pp. 33–35. doi:10.1109/ARITH.1975.6157004.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Pat Holmes Sterbenz

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Pat Holmes Sterbenz claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Pat Holmes Sterbenz before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Pat Holmes Sterbenz ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Pat Holmes Sterbenz

In research: Pat Holmes Sterbenz appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Pat Holmes Sterbenz in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Pat Holmes Sterbenz is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1927 births, 2008 deaths, 20th-century American mathematicians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Pat Holmes Sterbenz outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Pat Holmes Sterbenz in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Pat Holmes Sterbenz means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Pat Holmes Sterbenz out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Pat Holmes Sterbenz in simple terms?

Why does Pat Holmes Sterbenz matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Pat Holmes Sterbenz?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Pat Holmes Sterbenz.