Re: Why Mathematica does not issue a warning when the calculations
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg117708] Re: Why Mathematica does not issue a warning when the calculations
- From: Richard Fateman <fateman at cs.berkeley.edu>
- Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2011 04:11:11 -0500 (EST)
- References: <imsh6s$5k4$1@smc.vnet.net>
On 3/29/2011 4:53 AM, Andrzej Kozlowski wrote:
> In addition (for some curious reason) Richard never bothers to point out that
>
> z = 1.0000000000000000000;
> Block[{$MaxPrecision = 20, $MinPrecision = 20},
> Table[(z = 2*z - z), {42}]]
>
> will give the output that other systems give (with all the accompanying problems your post below mentions).
>
> In other words, his (and only his) gripe is only with Mathematica's *default* arithmetic.
I have other gripes, too :)
It would be nicer if one could simple do this
$DefaultArithmetic = Precision[20] and try some computation, vs.
$DefaultArithmetic = Significance
RJF