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Serious Bug in Mathematica 7 and 8.0.4.0 (latest version)

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg126178] Serious Bug in Mathematica 7 and 8.0.4.0 (latest version)
• From: Alexander Mayer <amayer at alum.mit.edu>
• Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2012 05:41:50 -0400 (EDT)
• Delivered-to: l-mathgroup@mail-archive0.wolfram.com

In[1]:= (* This notebook produced by Mathematica 8.0.4.0 *)
(* Platform: OSX 10.6.8 on MacBook Pro *)

In[1]:= b = 6371.01 (* We set the value of b to this real number. *)

Out[1]= 6371.01

In[2]:= SetPrecision[a = b, 20] (* We test the actual value of b. *)

Out[2]= 6371.0100000000002183

In[3]:= (* Mathematica has added a small constant! *)

In[4]:= (* Adding zeros to the 16th place fixes the problem. *)

In[5]:= c = 6371.0100000000000000 

Out[5]= 6371.0100000000000000

In[6]:= SetPrecision[a = c, 20] 

Out[6]= 6371.0100000000000000

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: Serious Bug in Mathematica 7 and 8.0.4.0 (latest version)
    • From: Ingolf Dahl <ingolf.dahl@telia.com>
  • Re: Serious Bug in Mathematica 7 and 8.0.4.0 (latest version)
    • From: Christoph Lhotka <christoph.lhotka@fundp.ac.be>
  • Re: Serious Bug in Mathematica 7 and 8.0.4.0 (latest version)
    • From: Bob Hanlon <hanlonr357@gmail.com>
  • Re: Serious Bug in Mathematica 7 and 8.0.4.0 (latest version)
    • From: Ralph Dratman <ralph.dratman@gmail.com>