Re: Exponential notation [was: Re: How to calculate/process this one?]
Re: Exponential notation [was: Re: How to calculate/process this one?]
- Subject: Re: Exponential notation [was: Re: How to calculate/process this one?]
- From: Paul Berkowitz <email@hidden>
- Date: Sat, 27 Apr 2002 11:49:14 -0700
On 4/27/02 10:48 AM, I wrote:
>
OK. Somewhere between 1.797693134862E+308 and 1.797693134863E+308, the
>
"result of a numeric calculation was too large". (The first of those numbers
>
works, the second doesn't, with that error.) The limit for reals is
>
somewhere in there. Adding any more decimal places after the final '2'
>
creates a syntax error, so I have to stop here, long before the 307th
>
decimal place. I have no idea how many zillion this represents, nor what
>
power of 2 (or even if it could be represented as a power of 2 without using
>
E notation for the exponent itself!). Does anyone know the significance of
>
this amazing number? Multiply by 2, because it works for negatives too.
The missing number appears to be somewhere "a little under" 2^1024 (which is
too large to calculate):
1.797693134862E+308 div (2 ^ 512) =
1.34078079299402E+154 / (2 ^ 512) =
1.0
(2 ^ 1023) - (2 ^ 971)
result + (2 ^ 1023) =
1.79769313486232E+308
Shave off less then 2 ^ 971 (in terms of powers of 2), and the final result
"is too large". Note that the E-notation managed to add two more significant
digits "32". When they're the "right ones" (the result of powers of 2
calculations, perhaps) it's OK.
It seems a rather odd number, not related to some "square" power of 2 less
1. I wonder what the limit is set by.
--
Paul Berkowitz
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