Why should I use asserts?

Question

I never got the idea of asserts -- why should you ever use them?

I mean, let\'s say I were a formula driver and all the asserts were things like security belt, helm

Answer 1

Assertion should be used for anticipating error in the way a programmer is using an API/function/class/whatever. These bugs need to be fixed quickly at debug time.

For everything else, throw an exception.