Imprecise Basic operations
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Hi everyone,
I am using Matlab 2009a. When I try to calculate
0.9 - 0.8 - 0.1
then the result is
-2.775557561562891 e-017
Close to zero, but not zero. Is it not possible to get a precise solution for a floating point operation? This minor imprecision has large implications for my programs.
Is there a way to get precise calculations? Why does matlab get this (quite easy task) wrong?
Thanks for your help!
1 Commento
James Tursa
il 13 Lug 2011
You might find this FEX submission useful:
http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/22239-num2strexact-exact-version-of-num2str
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Nathan Greco
il 13 Lug 2011
Welcome to the world of floating point computing.
A computer can't exactly represent most floating point numbers.
Example: Try calculating 3*(1/3) by hand, with writing out 1/3 to as many decimal places as you please. You will get .9999..., which is CLOSE to 1, but is not equal to 1 (which the true answer should be).
2 Commenti
Jan
il 13 Lug 2011
+1: Exactly. The behaviour is neither "wrong" nor "inprecise". It simply demonstrates the limited precision.
Walter Roberson
il 13 Lug 2011
Though if you go an infinite number of decimal places, 0.99999999999999.... (with infinite 9's) *is* equal to 1.
If you had an infinite number of bits, you could get an exact binary representation for 0.1 -- but of course no physically realizable computer can be infinite.
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