high precision mathematics

[Tim Roberts]

Fernando Pérez <fperez528 at yahoo.com> wrote:

>I.J. wrote:
>
>> Is there a module for python that grants ussage of decimal numbers with more
>> than 14 decimal places, including all scientific functions to do with those
>> numbers?
>
>No. Python uses C doubles underneath, and those give you only 14 places. 
>...
>What you're asking for isn't particularly easy to find outside of systems 
>like Mathematica which implement their own arithmetic subsystem, ...

And the original poster should understand that this is true because such
systems are of little practical use.  There are very, very few physical
processes where floating point is useful AND precision of more than 6
significant digits is really required.  Large integers can be useful (and
Python supports them), but a requirement for high precision floats is
usually a sign that the requirer does not understand his problem space.
--
- Tim Roberts, timr at probo.com
  Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.