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Astronomy

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  • $\begingroup$ "sun.Mass = 1.998855e30;" That is still not scaled down... $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 11, 2016 at 11:34
  • $\begingroup$ @Hohmannfan As I said, I used SI values, thats not scaled down. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 11, 2016 at 11:41
  • $\begingroup$ What I mean is that in many of the required calculations, you have to multiply several numbers of that kind of magnitude, before getting back to reasonable numbers. Even though the constant itself is well within limits, they may still cause unexpected errors in the calculations. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 11, 2016 at 11:44
  • $\begingroup$ @Hohmannfan I suggest you read some resources on the topic of double precision (64-bit floats), Even for values like the mass of the sun with 10^30 the precision is still better than 0.0001kg (if 1 = 1kg) $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 11, 2016 at 11:49
  • $\begingroup$ OK, the exponent is allocated 11 bits, and that is still a magnitude of 4 bits larger than the worst calculation example I can think of. Point taken. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 11, 2016 at 11:52