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Caleb Zhao
Caleb Zhao

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Incorrect calculations: tan(x) and cot(x) for large values of x

In this blog post, we explore incorrect calculations of the tangent function tan(x) and the cotangent function cot(x) for large numbers in MATLAB.

Example 1. Suppose x=235556677777.87โ€‰. x=235556677777.87\,. Calculate tanโก(x) \tan(x) and cotโก(x) \cot(x) in MATLAB.

Let's just post the figure directly.

MATLAB outputFrom the above figure, it can be seen that the two outputs from MATLAB are
1.429064236906033 1.4290\red{64236906033} and 0.699758607188316. 0.69975\red{8607188316} .

However, the correct values with 16 significant digits are 0.1429079091621959e1 and 0.6997513334724058, respectively (as provided by ISRealsoft).

As a result, both outputs from MATLAB contain 11 incorrect digits, with an error rate of 11/16 = 68.75% for the significant figures.

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