RE: rounding
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg49508] RE: [mg49469] rounding
- From: "Brown, Matt" <mbrown at phys.ksu.edu>
- Date: Thu, 22 Jul 2004 02:45:41 -0400 (EDT)
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
It isn't about rounding. It's about precision. Look up precision in the Mathematica master index. -----Original Message----- From: Amit Gandhi [mailto:akgandhi at uchicago.edu] To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net Subject: [mg49508] [mg49469] rounding Hello Group: I was wondering if anyone might be able to explain why mathematica does the following - In Mathematica I create a list of numbers as follows: mylist - Table[i, {i, 1., 8., .2}]; This produces {1., 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, 1.8, 2.05, 2.2, 2.4, 2.6, 2.8, 3., 3.2, 3.4, 3.6, 3.8, \ 4., 4.2, 4.4, 4.6, 4.8, 5., 5.2, 5.4, 5.6, 5.8, 6., 6.2, 6.4, 6.6, 6.8, 7., \ 7.2, 7.4, 7.6, 7.8, 8.} However if I try editing this output, it shows me that the full form of this list is: {1.`, 1.2`, 1.4000000000000001`, 1.6`, 1.8`, 2.05`, 2.2`, 2.4`, 2.6`, \ 2.8000000000000003`, 3.`, 3.2`, 3.4`, 3.6`, 3.8000000000000003`, 4.`, 4.2`, \ 4.4`, 4.6000000000000005`, 4.8`, 5.`, 5.2`, 5.4`, 5.6000000000000005`, 5.8`, \ 6.`, 6.2`, 6.4`, 6.6000000000000005`, 6.8`, 7.`, 7.2`, 7.4`, \ 7.6000000000000005`, 7.8`, 8.`} I would like this bottom list to be rounded so that the full form is equivalent to the first list. So I wrote a round function that rounds a real number to a specified number of decimal places: round[x_, place_] := (Round[x*(10.^place)])/(10.^place); so for instance round[3.456, 2] = 3.46. Now when I do round[mylist, 2], the full form of the numbers in the list continue to be {1.`, 1.2`, 1.4000000000000001`, 1.6`, 1.8`, 2.05`, 2.2`, 2.4`, 2.6`, \ 2.8000000000000003`, 3.`, 3.2`, 3.4`, 3.6`, 3.8000000000000003`, 4.`, 4.2`, \ 4.4`, 4.6000000000000005`, 4.8`, 5.`, 5.2`, 5.4`, 5.6000000000000005`, 5.8`, \ 6.`, 6.2`, 6.4`, 6.6000000000000005`, 6.8`, 7.`, 7.2`, 7.4`, \ 7.6000000000000005`, 7.8`, 8.`} Can anyone explain to me how to properly round numbers in mathematica.