Anne Archibald wrote: > Or, to see more clearly, try taking (on a pocket calculator, say) > sin(3.14) (or even sin(pi)).
This is an interesting point. I took a class from William Kahan once (pass/fail, thank god!), and one question he posed to us was: How many digits of pi is used in an HP calculator? I never figured out the answer myself, and the question involved the info that certain calculations involving pi being accurate to a certain degree. I don't have my HP calculator with me right now but I suspect that sin(pi) might well evaluate to exactly zero, or closer than 1e-16 anyway. I wonder if there are any C math libs that do a better job than you'd expect from standard FP? (short of unlimited precision ones) -Chris -- Christopher Barker, Ph.D. Oceanographer Emergency Response Division NOAA/NOS/OR&R (206) 526-6959 voice 7600 Sand Point Way NE (206) 526-6329 fax Seattle, WA 98115 (206) 526-6317 main reception [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Numpy-discussion mailing list Numpy-discussion@scipy.org http://projects.scipy.org/mailman/listinfo/numpy-discussion
