Hello Donna;
365365365365365365x^2
133491850208566925016658299941583225
NB. That wasn't so hard...
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|\/| Randy A MacDonald | APL: If you can say it, it's done.. (ram)
|/\| [EMAIL PROTECTED] |
|\ | |If you cannot describe what you are doing
BSc(Math) UNBF'83 þas a process, you don't know what you're doing.
Sapere Aude | - W. E. Deming
Natural Born APL'er | Demo website: http://156.34.78.239/
-----------------------------------------------------(INTP)----{ gnat }-
----- Original Message -----
From: "dly" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "General forum" <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, June 23, 2006 10:25 AM
Subject: [Jgeneral] significant digits
comparing J to my 1st handheld calculator (HP45) c1973:
http://www.hpmuseum.org/hp45.htm
"Little is understood about the methods used by calculating prodigies to
perform their awesome feats. The method used by 10- year-old Truman Henry
Safford, in 1846 to calculate 365365365365365365^2 (as described by the
Rev. H. W. Adams) shows that difficult problems are difficult even for
prodigies--"...he flew around the room like a top, pulled his pantaloons
over the tops of his boots, bit his hands, rolled his eyes in their
sockets, sometimes smiling and talking and then seeming to be in agony,
until, in not more than a minute said he,
133,491,850,208,566,925,016,658,299,941,583,225!"
"Although your HP-45 might not be as much fun to watch, it makes
calculating faster and less arduous, because the operational stack and
the reverse "Polish" notation used by the HP-45 provide the most
efficient way known to computer science for evaluating mathematical
expressions."
And from a bit later in the introduction:
"Incidentally, no calculator available today (including ours) can handle
the problem given to our child prodigy. Isn't it comforting to know that
people can still do things machines can't?"
Truman Henry Safford
365365365365365365^2
133,491,850,208,566,925,016,658,299,941,583,225!
HP45
1.334918502e35
J
365365365365365365^2
1.33492e35
(365365365365365365^2)%1e30
133492
Still room for prodigies
Donna
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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