Re: Displaying decimals
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg63482] Re: Displaying decimals
- From: albert <awnl at arcor.de>
- Date: Tue, 3 Jan 2006 01:24:34 -0500 (EST)
- References: <dpb0q8$1ph$1@smc.vnet.net>
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
Lea Rebanks wrote: > > Given the enclosed function, I can not make Mathematica v5.1 display > greater than 3 decimals. Please help. > > slope[x_]:=160.245051009838+0.05888359189242*x > > EG. slope[50] = 163.189 > > I don't know how or why this is happening. I have tried N[expr,20] to > no avail. > > Many thanks for your attention. they are all there, you just need mathematica to show them, e.g.: In[1]:= slope[x_]:=160.245051009838+0.05888359189242*x In[2]:= InputForm[slope[50]] Out[2]//InputForm= 163.189230604459 or In[3]:= NumberForm[slope[50],20] Out[3]//NumberForm= 163.189230604459 will do the job (there are other *Form-functions that probably are more usefull for your case). Using N will try to increase the precision of your expression, but that will never be better than what you start with, which is MachinePrecision in your case. If you use higher precision from the start, you will see more digits even with the default behaviour of Mathematica: In[4]:= slope[x_]:=160.245051009838`20+0.05888359189242`20*x In[5]:= slope[50] Out[5]= 163.18923060445900000 But be careful to not waste precision with input of less precision: In[7]:= slope[50.] Out[7]= 163.189 In this case you will again need an appropriate *Form-wrapper. hth albert