Subject: strange behaviour with simple decimals / Axiom
From: Jay Belanger
Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 20:25:51 -0500
Richard Fateman <fateman at cs.berkeley.edu> writes:
> In Axiom version of 1/17/2005
>
> 1.4^2 comes out as 1.96
>
> 1.96 - 1.4^2 comes out as 0.7 E -20
Same thing for the latest (gold) version of Axiom.
> I don't know if this counts as unexpected to a 5th grader, but does a
> 5th grader even know about "E" scientific notation?
I'd be happy if my college students could handle "E" notation.
Jay