Software

Disasters

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” If debugging is the process
of removing bugs, then
programming must be the
process of putting them in. „

Edsger Dijkstra
How bugs lead to disasters
# Explosion of Ariane 5, 1996
“ Conversion of a 64 bit integer into a 16 bit
signed integer lead to an overflow. „
# Loss of Mars Climate Orbiter, 1999
“ Mix-up between pounds and kilogram. „
# Loss of Mariner 1, 1962
“ Period instead of comma in
FORTRAN DO-Loop. „
# USS Yorktown dead in the water, 1998
“ Input and Division by ‘0’. „

X / 0 = undefined
# MIM-104 Patriot Missile Failure, 1991
“ Rounding Error „
# Shutdown of 5 nuclear reactors, 1985
“ Use of arithmetic sum of variables instead

of the square root of the sum of the

squares of the variables. „

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