Real World Applications of Ceiling and Floor Functions

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Ceiling and floor functions have practical applications in various fields, particularly in financial calculations where fractional values, like pennies, arise. These functions help in rounding numbers to ensure fairness in transactions, balancing outcomes for both customers and sellers. In some cases, unethical practices can exploit these rounding methods to accumulate profits unfairly. The discussion highlights the importance of understanding these mathematical concepts due to their widespread use in real-world scenarios. Overall, ceiling and floor functions play a crucial role in ensuring equitable financial practices.
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Does anyone know of any real life application of ceiling and floor functions?
 
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Whenever you run across some mathematical function that has a name, a consistent meaning, and even a special set of symbols you should *know* that this function has a very widespread use.

There are all kinds of uses for ceiling, floor, and related concepts such as rounding. One example: Fractional pennies don't exist, yet a number of calculations will yield fractional pennies. What to do with those things? If you're being fair you'll try to round so that sometimes the customer wins, sometimes the seller wins, but on average, it comes out even. If you're not being fair, there are lots of nefarious salami slicing schemes that let those fractional pennies pile up (in your account of course) and eventually yield lots of dollars.
 
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Thread 'Area of Overlapping Squares'

Here is a little puzzle from the book 100 Geometric Games by Pierre Berloquin. The side of a small square is one meter long and the side of a larger square one and a half meters long. One vertex of the large square is at the center of the small square. The side of the large square cuts two sides of the small square into one- third parts and two-thirds parts. What is the area where the squares overlap?
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