Timeline for $e^{-5}$ error using Taylor's series
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
5 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jan 12, 2017 at 9:51 | comment | added | j_random_hacker | @van: Basically, if you subtract 2 floating point numbers that are close enough together that their first, say, 10 bits are equal, then the result has 10 bits less precision than usual. For more detail I suggest googling "catastrophic cancellation" and "subtraction floating point accuracy". | |
| Jan 11, 2017 at 20:22 | comment | added | van | @j_random_hacker sorry for being so late didn't know i have to use @ to notify you ,my difficulty is what you say could you maybe explain me this catastrophic cancellation you mention, thanks a lot for your time | |
| Jan 11, 2017 at 15:00 | comment | added | van | I think I forgot an important note , I will use Taylor's series for n=9 and even tho we have alternating series the numbers we subtract are not close too each other so as far as I know we wont have any rounding erros | |
| Jan 11, 2017 at 14:58 | comment | added | j_random_hacker | I think the OP's difficulty is with understanding why subtraction can be a problem with floating point accuracy. Briefly: catastrophic cancellation. | |
| Jan 11, 2017 at 14:52 | history | answered | Shubham Singh rawat | CC BY-SA 3.0 |