| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Podge |
Posted - 12 March 2009 : 07:03:39
Windows scientific calculator calculates .5 ^ 12288 as 8.778357852076208839765066529179e-3700
Anyone know of a calculator that will output the result in ordinary format i.e. 0.0000000000000000000000000<snipped zeros>8778357852076208839765066529179
Any other ideas how I could express exactly how small this number is ? |
| 6 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Podge |
Posted - 12 March 2009 : 13:43:37
I got this idea from here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googolplex
Measure the width of a zero and convert the number to metres in length.
If a zero is 3mm in width the number would be 11.19 metres long (3730 digits). Seem reasonable ? |
| HuwR |
Posted - 12 March 2009 : 13:16:31
yes well -e3700 is so small it is considered to be 0, you would be hard pressed to find anything that would not round it to 0 |
| Shaggy |
Posted - 12 March 2009 : 12:30:45
Tried the same calculation in JavaScript and VBScript and they both return 0 as well.
|
| HuwR |
Posted - 12 March 2009 : 12:29:12
if you ask google what 0.5^12288 is, it just returns 0 which is probably close enough  |
| Podge |
Posted - 12 March 2009 : 12:19:21
8.778357852076208839765066529179e-3700 means nothing to someone that doesn't know what e-3700 means.
A few pages full of zeros would show how small it is even to the mathematically challenged. I'm looking for other ideas though. |
| HuwR |
Posted - 12 March 2009 : 07:08:40
um the reason it expresses it as e-3700 is precicely because it is so small, I'm pretty sure you will never find a calculator that is going to output 3700 digits |
