Seriously? Only 12 digits precision? o_O

[Joe Horn]

As you say, floating point number in Home have 12-BCD-digit mantissas, but did you know that floating point numbers in CAS (not the "arbitrary precision" integers) have 48-bit mantissas? That's roughly equivalent to 15 digits of decimal precision. So if you really need more than 12 digits (why???) then do your floating-point math in CAS, and you'll get more accuracy than your 14-digit calculator.

<opinion>The more expensive the calculator, the greater number of digits you should get? No. That's like saying the more expensive the camera, the more megapixels you should get. Not true at all. My Nikon with 12 sharp megapixels gets better results than my friend's camera with its 24 fuzzy megapixels. The number of pixels does not determine the quality of the camera. That's why some lower-megapixel cameras cost more than some cameras with more megapixels. Similarly, the number of digits does not determine the accuracy of the calculator. 12 reliable digits beats 15 unreliable digits. For example, I have a calculator that boasts having 24 internal digits, which it does... but most of its functions are only accurate to 12 digits, with the following 12 digits being garbage. 24 digits? I'm not impressed.</opinion>