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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.


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