Prev: ABC video player
Next: any with Graphing Calculator or Nucalc 3.5, or other good andbad calculators?
From: Autymn D. C. on 4 Oct 2009 05:50
Thanks Marc.

Why will others not do the same?
From: Marc Heusser on 5 Oct 2009 07:39
In article
<1e605459-c57a-4fe9-ac92-0887db9245b0(a)b3g2000pre.googlegroups.com>,
"Autymn D. C." <lysdexia(a)sbcglobal.net> wrote:

> Thanks Marc.
>
> Why will others not do the same?

I guess there is not much more to say - loosely explained machine
precision only gives some 4 decimals (6 digits total) here, because you
are calculating differences of two numbers of the order of 10E11,
thereby loosing some 11 digits of precision.

If you need more, then get a specialized tool for what you are
attempting. You need either to calculate with more digits than machine
precision (dynamically controlled), or simplify the expression
beforehand, or both of it. Some of the tools will do all that for you
automatically, your "pocket calculator" will not do that.
If you wish this is the difference between engineering and mathematics -
the real world is not perfect in this sense.

HTH

Marc

--
remove bye and from mercial to get valid e-mail
<http://www.heusser.com>
First  |  Prev  | 
Pages: 1 2
Prev: ABC video player
Next: any with Graphing Calculator or Nucalc 3.5, or other good andbad calculators?