I interpret int(x) as the integer part of x. So if x=1.6, int(x)=1, because it's not the nearest integer but just the integer part of the number, so, for example, in this case x-int(x)=0.6, the fraction part. When x is close to zero on the positive side, x will have a value, say, of 0.05 and int(x)=0. Between the values of 0 and 1 (exclusive) int(x) will be 0.