[Maxima] Maxima gives incorrect results with ceiling

[van Nek]

Yes, the following shows that there are bigfloat calculations involved, because fpprec 
shouldn't influence float calculations.

(%i1) fpprec:24$
(%i2) string( ceiling(factorial(32)/exp(1)) );
(%o2)                 96800425246141091510518410066788352
(%i3) fpprec:25$
(%i4) string( ceiling(factorial(32)/exp(1)) );
(%o4)         ceiling(263130836933693530167218012160000000*%e^-1)

Can you explain, what is going on there?

Volker


Am 7 Dec 2007 um 13:35 hat Stavros Macrakis geschrieben:

 *internally* it uses an approximation method 
based (as it happens) on bigfloats.