In our previous episode, Vinzent H?fler said: > <mueller_mich...@alice-dsl.net> wrote: > > > Single has 7 significant digits. > > <mode style="nitpicking"> > Six significant digits. The seventh already is unreliable. > </mode>
A mistake in the nth digit can show up much higher than the nth or n-1th digit, depending on the magnitude of the condition number. A commonly known case of an error in inputs propagating to large errors in output is catastrophic cancellation, which can cause a condition number >>1. And the example _does_ add negative values to positive ones, which is equal to the subtraction in catastrophic canellation. _______________________________________________ fpc-pascal maillist - fpc-pascal@lists.freepascal.org http://lists.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/fpc-pascal
