blackhole123 Posted June 21, 2006 Posted June 21, 2006 Open the Windows Calculator. enter 2 and press 'sqrt' to get the square root of 2 press '×' and then '=' to square the square root of 2 to get 2 again subtract 2 wha???
Kyrisch Posted June 21, 2006 Posted June 21, 2006 I have a Macintosh and the calculator program obviously doesn't have the same bug as does the Windows brand. If you are getting a number like +-0.00000000000001 or something, it may be because of infinitesimal errors that propagate offscreen and then get displayed at the end. This can be observed in programming if one multiplies/divides huge numbers or incredibly small numbers.
blackhole123 Posted June 21, 2006 Author Posted June 21, 2006 when i subtract 2 from 2 at the end i get: 1.1578739678741186722221088213213e-37 which doesnt make sense, 2-2=0 so it must be a bug
Kyrisch Posted June 21, 2006 Posted June 21, 2006 Yeah, it's some tiny, tiny number. It's just a bug. You shouldn't be so bothered by it.
blackhole123 Posted June 21, 2006 Author Posted June 21, 2006 ok j/w if i was missing something thanks
JustStuit Posted June 21, 2006 Posted June 21, 2006 That number is so close to zero it can be rounded for practical purposes to zero. Who knows why it doesn't just make it zero.
gib65 Posted June 21, 2006 Posted June 21, 2006 Yeah, I get 4.231503478368152916468244968377e-38 computers have trouble rounding when it comes to that degree of precision. It has to do with the fact that the registers that store the numbers are finite in size.
DaveC426913 Posted July 27, 2006 Posted July 27, 2006 Yeah, but what's weird is that the error isn't in the calculation 2-2=0, the error is in displaying 2 as the result of sqrt(2)^2, which is where the bug occurs. If it calced the result as 1.999999999999... why didn't it display that?
insane_alien Posted July 27, 2006 Posted July 27, 2006 because it rounded the number to fit into the display even though the 1.9999999... is still stored in the memory as that.
Severian Posted July 30, 2006 Posted July 30, 2006 I wouldn't call that a bug. It is correct to 37 significant figures! I think you are being a bit perfectionist if you want it better than that.
insane_alien Posted July 30, 2006 Posted July 30, 2006 On my Mac Calculator, I got 0.82842712475 yes, a mac. there is your problem right there.
radiohead Posted August 13, 2006 Posted August 13, 2006 Good ol' GNOME Calc gives me a -0. Looks like Linux wins again.
CanadaAotS Posted August 16, 2006 Posted August 16, 2006 9.6489497322843222685175735110111e-38 38 sig figs for me. damn you linux... DAMN YOU...! lol
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