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<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=4><SPAN class=247495902-14032006>Large
what.. mantisaa or exponent? Mantissa precision is probably what you
seek. Many languages have IEEE double precision math available if you "ask
for it" and diligently verify that it's in each and every step. That
should give about a 64bit mantissa IIRC.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=4><SPAN
class=247495902-14032006></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=4><SPAN class=247495902-14032006>HP
calculators have larger mantissa capability than any other scientific
calculators and that's probably enough for your math. I've done lengthy
calculations requiring one part in 10 million precision throughout on HP
scientific calculators, and that's a lot easier than programming something
to keep that precision unless it's an automated and repetitive process.
Gotta be real careful that any programming math package may have some functions
that limit the overall precision of the calculations to about 1 part in a
million or less. Transcendentals are usually not very good.
Calculations in optics and some laser work are unforgiving however, and demand
the precision to get any useful result.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=4><SPAN
class=247495902-14032006></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=4><SPAN
class=247495902-14032006>Chuck</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid">
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Tahoma
size=2>-----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B>
tclug-list-bounces@mn-linux.org [mailto:tclug-list-bounces@mn-linux.org]<B>On
Behalf Of </B>Tim Wilson<BR><B>Sent:</B> Monday, March 13, 2006 4:58
PM<BR><B>To:</B> Jay Austad<BR><B>Cc:</B>
tclug-list@mn-linux.org<BR><B>Subject:</B> Re: [tclug-list] large number
calculator<BR><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>On Mar 13, 2006, at 4:43 PM, Jay Austad wrote:</DIV><BR
class=Apple-interchange-newline>
<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">
<P style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 12px Helvetica" face=Helvetica
size=3>I need to do some calculations on very large numbers, and bc won't
<SPAN class=Apple-converted-space></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 12px Helvetica" face=Helvetica
size=3>handle it.<SPAN class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN>Does anyone know
if a good tool which doesn't really have <SPAN
class=Apple-converted-space></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 12px Helvetica" face=Helvetica
size=3>a limit on the size of numbers that it can deal with?<SPAN
class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN>Something <SPAN
class=Apple-converted-space></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 12px Helvetica" face=Helvetica
size=3>preferably free, I only really need to do one calculation to find out
<SPAN class=Apple-converted-space></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 12px Helvetica" face=Helvetica
size=3>the probability of something, but it's fairly complex and has huge
<SPAN class=Apple-converted-space></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT style="FONT: 12px Helvetica" face=Helvetica
size=3>numbers in it.</FONT></P></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
<DIV><BR class=khtml-block-placeholder></DIV>
<DIV>Python handles large ints pretty well. You could just fire up the python
interpreter (type 'python' in a shell) and start entering your numbers is
regular mathematical notation.</DIV>
<DIV><BR class=khtml-block-placeholder></DIV>
<DIV>-Tim</DIV><BR>
<DIV><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="WORD-SPACING: 0px; FONT: 12px Helvetica; TEXT-TRANSFORM: none; COLOR: rgb(0,0,0); TEXT-INDENT: 0px; WHITE-SPACE: normal; LETTER-SPACING: normal; BORDER-COLLAPSE: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; apple-text-size-adjust: auto; orphans: 2; widows: 2">
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">-- </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">Tim Wilson</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">Twin Cities, Minnesota, USA</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">Educational technology guy, Linux and OS X fan, Grad.
student, Daddy</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">mailto: <A
href="mailto:wilson@visi.com">wilson@visi.com</A><SPAN
class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN><SPAN
class=Apple-converted-space></SPAN>aim: tis270<SPAN
class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN><SPAN
class=Apple-converted-space></SPAN>blog: <A
href="http://technosavvy.org">http://technosavvy.org</A></DIV><BR
class=Apple-interchange-newline></SPAN></DIV><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>