Jonathon Blake wrote:
Dan wrote:
The problem is that you product: 4.61E +399 is is larger than what Calc allows.
Drat!
Are there any spreadsheets that can handle numbers up to 1.0E+1000000?
Or am I going to have to write my own functions in python?
[Assuming that I can duplicate in python functions that I could write
in P-System Pascal.]
More or less on those lines:
a) What is the largest number in Scientific Notation that Calc allows?
b) How close to zero can one go, using Scientific Notation?
As far as Calc is concerned, your product is "infinity".
Oddly enough, the claim from the adherents for whom I am doing the
spreadsheet for are making a more or less similar claim.
A limit of about 2E308 is not imposed by Calc, but is rather intrinsic
to the IEEE floating-point specification, which is used by nearly all
modern hardware, and consequently by nearly all languages and programs.
If you want to mess with larger values, you have to use software that
does arithmetic the hard way, a digit at a time (or so) instead of using
the computer's built-in arithmetic. No piece of software designed for
efficiency will do this, but some programming languages will allow you
to ask for it. Java (using the java.math.BigDecimal class) and Perl
(using the bignum pragma) can do it. I don't know Python.
The Windows XP calculator can do it. (Which is understandable; if you
only do one calculation at a time, it doesn't matter that it takes, say,
200 ns instead of 5 ns.)
--
John W. Kennedy
"...when you're trying to build a house of cards, the last thing you
should do is blow hard and wave your hands like a madman."
-- Rupert Goodwins
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