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Re: Newbie question

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg40148] Re: Newbie question
  • From: Bill Rowe <listuser at earthlink.net>
  • Date: Sat, 22 Mar 2003 05:10:34 -0500 (EST)
  • Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

On 3/21/03 at 2:37 AM, daniel.lidstrom at _DELETE_home.se (Daniel
Lidstr?m) wrote:

>When I do Rationalize[N[Pi,3]] I get 3.14159. How can that be? I'm
>expecting a quotient. Thanks!

It looks like you are trying to get a rational number that approximates Pi with an error of no more than 0.01. If so, the best way to achieve this is using

Rationalize[Pi,0.01]

I believe N[x,p] returns x to as a machine number whenever p is equal to or less than the number of digits representable as a machine number. 


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