> BTW, 1.01^8005551212 power is 9.99999999999^99
Mmm I doubt it, more like something close to 1+0.01*8005551212=80055513
isn't it?
I don't know. My calculator hits 9.99999^99 at around 2^334
Excel gives up on the straight calculation too, I had to do it with the help
of good old logarithms, base 10 so I would have directly the result as a
power of 10 (=~9.999999999999...)
Log(a^b) is b*Log(a) isn't it?
So Log(1.01^8005551212)=8005551212*Log(1.01)
=8005551212*0.00432137378264258
=34594979.1231393
So 1.01^8005551212 = 10^34594979.1231393, and not 10^99 as your calculator
wants you to believe ;)
The well know approximation:
(1+epsilon)^n=~1+n*epsilon
on which my previous calculation was based only works for reasonable values
of n obviously.
Michel
Fred
