Calculator with LOTS of decimals

[Usaf Moji]

Hi, I'm trying to do some caculations involving numbers with big differences in their orders of magnitude. Unfortunately, all the cacluclating tools I can find always round off the answers too much to be of any use to me.

For example, if I type 4.5 x 10^-12 - (4.5 x 10^-12 - 9.2 x 10 ^-30) I want a calculator that will give me 9.2 x 10 ^-30. But all the calculators I've used give me 0 due to unwanted rounding during the calculation. Even Python does this.

Does anyone know where I could get a calculator or program that can do the calculation I need? I would prefer something with a simple interface resembling a hand-held calculator (like what Python uses) rather than something that requires any kind of programming.

Thanks.

 

[rock.freak667]

I think most scientific calculators will give you that answer assuming that you use the exp. button.

 

[stewartcs]

Hi, I'm trying to do some caculations involving numbers with big differences in their orders of magnitude. Unfortunately, all the cacluclating tools I can find always round off the answers too much to be of any use to me.

For example, if I type 4.5 x 10^-12 - (4.5 x 10^-12 - 9.2 x 10 ^-30) I want a calculator that will give me 9.2 x 10 ^-30. But all the calculators I've used give me 0 due to unwanted rounding during the calculation. Even Python does this.

Does anyone know where I could get a calculator or program that can do the calculation I need? I would prefer something with a simple interface resembling a hand-held calculator (like what Python uses) rather than something that requires any kind of programming.

Thanks.

The calculator that comes with Windows can do it.

CS

 

[Usaf Moji]

The calculator that comes with Windows can do it.

CS

Hey, you're right! Thanks!

 

[robert Ihnot]

You can use, for free, PARI, the package for number theory. Just look it up on the internet. Normally the program I use goes to 28 decimal places. A little secret here, found in the tutorial is to use \pX to get X places of precision. You can set that for X=50, or X=500 for that matter.

However in the example you gave, depending upon the brackets, it sometimes insists on giving 9.1 followed by a long string of 9s. Even for 500 places its off at the last 7 giving 615927*10^-30.

 

[CRGreathouse]

I second the Pari recommendation.

(15:02)(1+1e-20)^2-1-2e-20
%5 = 9.99999984 E-41

(15:02)\p 1000
   realprecision = 1001 significant digits (1000 digits displayed)
(15:02)(1+1e-400)^2-1-2e-400
%6 = 9.9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999526402 E-801