specifying arbitrary precision thruout calculations
- To: mathgroup at christensen.cybernetics.net
- Subject: [mg440] specifying arbitrary precision thruout calculations
- From: Jonathan Rich <rich at earth.nwu.edu>
- Date: Wed, 1 Feb 1995 20:19:41 -0600
Is there any way to specify, at the start of a session, or at the start of a Mathematica script or program, that one would like MMA to use a given precision (i.e. something other than $MachinePrecision) thruout the calculations? It doesn't appear to me that "PrecisionGoal" is what I want as that is an option for specific numerical functions. In other words, what I want is something like "SetPrecision[]", but not for a specific expression but rather a global default value which tells MMA to assume such a precision for all expressions and numerical calculations, unless specified otherwise. Then when one typed "x=3.", x would automatically have whatever precision one had globally set at the beginning of the session. I guess this would correspond to use of C or Fortran compiler flags like "-r8" that instruct the compiler that all variables are to be double precision (for example). Is there a way of doing such a thing in mathematica? Thanks for your help and advice. Jonathan Rich