Math errors in python

[Bengt Richter]

On Mon, 20 Sep 2004 15:16:07 +1200, Paul Foley <see at below.invalid> wrote:

>On 19 Sep 2004 15:24:31 -0700, Dan Bishop wrote:
>
>> There are, of course, reasonably accurate rational approximations of
>> pi.  For example, 355/113 (accurate to 6 decimal places), 312689/99532
>> (9 decimal places), or 3126535/995207 (11 decimal places).  Also, the
>> IEEE 754 double-precision representation of pi is equal to the
>> rational number 4503599627370496/281474976710656.
>
>I hope not!  That's equal to 16.  (The double float closest to) pi is
>884279719003555/281474976710656
>
Amazingly, that is _exactly_ equal to math.pi

 >>> from ut.exactdec import ED
 >>> import math
 >>> ED('884279719003555/281474976710656')
 ED('3.141592653589793115997963468544185161590576171875')
 >>> ED(math.pi,'all')
 ED('3.141592653589793115997963468544185161590576171875')
 >>> ED('884279719003555/281474976710656') == ED(math.pi,'all')
 True

 >>> ED('884279719003555/281474976710656').astuple()
 (3141592653589793115997963468544185161590576171875L, 1L, -48)
 >>> ED(math.pi,'all').astuple()
 (3141592653589793115997963468544185161590576171875L, 1L, -48)

So it's also equal to the rational number
 3141592653589793115997963468544185161590576171875 / 10**48

 >>> ED('3141592653589793115997963468544185161590576171875'
 ...   '/1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000')
 ED('3.141592653589793115997963468544185161590576171875')

or

 >>> ED('3141592653589793115997963468544185161590576171875') / ED(10**48)
 ED('3.141592653589793115997963468544185161590576171875')

Regards,
Bengt Richter