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behaviour of N[0]

• To: mathgroup at christensen.cybernetics.net
• Subject: [mg1801] behaviour of N[0]
• From: guasch at u6.ifae.es (Jaume Guasch)
• Date: Mon, 31 Jul 1995 23:07:32 -0400

	I'm sure that someone has noted this before, but I haven't seen
it, neither in the group nor in the manual.

	When mathematica tries to evaluate N[#] returns always a Real number,
except when # is 0. Namely:

In[1]:= N[0]

Out[1]= 0

In[2]:= IntegerQ[N[0]]

Out[2]= True

In[3]:= N[3]

Out[3]= 3.

In[4]:= IntegerQ[N[3]]

Out[4]= False

	And the only way I found to convert it to Real is:

In[5]:= 0+1.-1.

Out[5]= 0.

	Is there any reason for this different treatment betwen 0 and the
other numbers? 

	Is there any other way to obtain 0. ? (not 0+68686.-68686.)

--
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