MathGroup Archive: April 2006 [00559]

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Bug in calculating -3^49999.0

To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
Subject: [mg65989] Bug in calculating -3^49999.0
From: kowald at molgen.mpg.de
Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 04:37:40 -0400 (EDT)
Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

Hello everybody,

I'm using Mathematica 5.1 under Win2k and I found a bug when I try to compute
-3^49999. I get:

-3^49999 //N  =>  -3.85 * 10^23855          okay
-3^49999.      =>  -3.85 * 10^23855          okay
(-3)^49999.    =>  -3.85 * 10^23855 + 4.56*10^23844 i       wrong
(-3)^49999     =>  -3.85 * 10^23855          okay

Is this a known problem?
Is there a work around ?
Obviously this is part of a more complicated calculation and so I
cannot simply leave out the brackets.

 Many thanks,

                Axel

Follow-Ups:
- Re: Bug in calculating -3^49999.0
  - From: Daniel Lichtblau <danl@wolfram.com>
- Re: Bug in calculating -3^49999.0
  - From: "Carl K. Woll" <carlw@wolfram.com>
- Re: Bug in calculating -3^49999.0
  - From: Bob Hanlon <hanlonr@cox.net>

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