A doubt in exception handling

[rajaraman navaneethan]

hello friends plz get me cleared of the following doubt in exception handling.

class a
{
public static void main(String args[])
{
int i=6;
try
{
int j;
j=6/0;
}
catch(Exception e)
{
e.printStackTrace();
}
catch(ArithmeticException s)
{
s.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
we know that this code will give an error since the Exception object e catches all types of exceptions,so the second catch becomes unreachable and leads to error.
my question is how does the Exception class being a super class is able to handle the exceptions of its subclasses,such as ArithmeticException and ArrayIndexOutOfBounds?
normally a super class does not have the knowledge of its subclasses.
plz mail the reply.

[Ilja Preuss]

Not a performance question - moving to Java in General (beginner)...