Re: N[ ] function problem
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg41653] Re: N[ ] function problem
- From: Bill Rowe <listuser at earthlink.net>
- Date: Thu, 29 May 2003 08:14:56 -0400 (EDT)
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
On 5/28/03 at 4:57 AM, wwolfe18 at attbi.com (Warren Wolfe) wrote: >I have found that the N[expr, n] function always returns 6 digits for >n < 17. Above 17 it works as advertised. I am using version 4.2 on a >Windows 98 machine. I did not have this problem with version 3.0 on >this machine. Can anyone give me a clue what's happening? I think you are confusing *display* of numbers with what N sets. These are somewhat independent. Whenever a precision is set to be less than or equal to $MachinePrecision, I believe the value will be stored as a machine number with a default display of 6 digits. Obviously whenever you specify precision greater than $MachinePrecision, the value cannot be stored as a machine number. In that case the logical display is the specified precision which Mathematica appears to do.