Re: DIGITS

[P Ehlers <ehlers@math.ucalgary.ca>]

Have you considered logarithms?

Peter Ehlers
U of Calgary

MAGGIO GUIDO wrote:

> Can anybody tell me how I can make computations of a large number? 
> Example: I am computing a likelihood, within its expression I have
> lambda^(n*mean(x)) which in my case is equivalent approximately to
> 14,4^919. Splus can't make this computation (it could make 14,4^799) as
> the result is too high and becomes infinity ("inf"). 
> This causes and impossibility to compute the likelihood.
> I have tried enlarging the number of digits through
>
> OPTIONS==>GENERAL SETTINGS==>COMPUTATIONS 
>
> And by setting the number of digits to the maximum=20.
> This allows me to compute very small numbers with many digits bit does
> not help me with my lambda^(n*mean(x))  which again turns out =inf.
>
> I am using Splus 6.2. Is this the cause of my problem?
> Thanks
>
> Guido