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Re: gives 919.8359999999999?`

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  • Subject: [mg132112] Re: gives 919.8359999999999?`
  • From: Richard Fateman <fateman at cs.berkeley.edu>
  • Date: Sun, 8 Dec 2013 04:34:58 -0500 (EST)
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On 12/5/2013 11:11 PM, Bill Rowe wrote:
..... And this is characteristic is
> inherent in any modern computer.
At least when using double-precision binary floating-point arithmetic.
Which is what Mathematica happens to be using here. It doesn't always.
See below.

>
> If you want to avoid this characteristic in Mathematica, simply
> use exact arithmetic.

That may seem simple, but can lead to exponentially expensive arithmetic.
Compare Timing[Sum[1/n,{n,1,100000];]
to
  Timing[Sum[1.0/n,{n,1,100000];]

As for your particular example, you could try this:

FullForm[916.53600000000000000 + 3.300000000000000000000]
which gets all the digits you expect.

Even better you (and other readers of this note) could read
David Goldberg, "What Every Computer Scientist Should Know About 
Floating-Point Arithmetic".

  That is
>
> In[1]:= 916536/1000 + 33/10
>
> Out[1]= 229959/250
>
> In[2]:= N[%]
>
> Out[2]= 919.836
>
> In[3]:= FullForm[%]
>
> Out[3]//FullForm= 919.836`
>
>




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