Article: Q11158
Product(s): See article
Version(s): 3.00 4.00 5.00 5.10 6.00 6.00a | 5.10 6.00 6.00a
Operating System(s): MS-DOS | OS/2
Keyword(s): ENDUSER | s_quickc | mspl13_c
Last Modified: 15-JAN-1991
Question:
If you try to calculate tan(pi/2), which is in fact not defined, tan()
will return a value. This value is not large. Why isn't there an error
message for such an overflow?
Response:
This is a precision limitation. Because you are constrained to work in
single or double precision accuracy, it isn't possible to specify a
value close enough to the true value of pi/2 so that tan(X) overflows.