ListPlot with small numbers
- To: mathgroup at yoda.physics.unc.edu
- Subject: ListPlot with small numbers
- From: Simon Chandler <simonc at hpcpbla.bri.hp.com>
- Date: Thu, 22 Oct 92 10:52:16 +0100
22/10/92
Dear MathGroup,
Can anyone tell me why Mathematica versions 2.0 and 2.1 won't ListPlot
numbers smaller than $MachinePrecision. For example
ListPlot[{1 10^-34,2 10^-34,3 10^-34}]
results in a graph with y-axes from -0.5 to +0.5 with the points
plotted at y = 0.
I would have thought, since all numbers in the list are of the same
magnitude, that the plotting routines would automatically scale the
plot to give a straight line graph with gradient 10^-34. Indeed this
was exactly what Mathematica version 1.0 did.
Of course a pre-plotting `filter' could be written to do the scaling but
why is this no longer automatically done?
Simon Chandler
Hewlett-Packard Ltd (CPB)
Filton Road
Stoke Gifford
Bristol
BS12 6QZ
Tel: 0272 228109
Fax: 0272 236091
email: simonc%hpcpbla.bri.hp.com at hplb.hpl.hp.com