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coberg6-Contributor
6-Contributor
August 23, 2017
Solved

1 ft Not Equal to 12 in

  • August 23, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 1666 views

I have noticed that both in the older versions of Mathcad, as well as the new Prime versions, there is an issue when using both feet and inches units in a worksheet.  It appears that in mathcad 1 ft is not exactly equal to 12 in (if you evaluate ft = 12in, the return vaule is 0).  I am assuming that this is a result of 1in being equal to 0.08333333333 ft.  This can become an issue when using the rounding functions when things are evenly divisible.  For example, 10 ft / 12in calculates to 10.000000000000002.  If you were to evaluate  ceil(10ft / 12in) the result would be 11 NOT 10.  Is there any way to resolve the internal threshold/rounding issue? 

Best answer by RichardJ

In Mathcad 15, go to "Tools", "Worksheet options", the "Calculation" tab, and uncheck "Use exact equality for comparisons and truncation". In Prime go to the "Calculation" tab, and select "Approximate equality" under "Calculation options".

 

I have this set this way in my default document template.

1 reply

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RichardJ19-TanzaniteAnswer
19-Tanzanite
August 23, 2017

In Mathcad 15, go to "Tools", "Worksheet options", the "Calculation" tab, and uncheck "Use exact equality for comparisons and truncation". In Prime go to the "Calculation" tab, and select "Approximate equality" under "Calculation options".

 

I have this set this way in my default document template.

    C
    coberg6-ContributorAuthor
    6-Contributor
    August 24, 2017

    Thank you Richard!  This solved the issue.  I am just surprised that Mathcad doesn't handle these units better and that there is not some internal rounding/tolerance done to prevent this.  Thank you for the answer!

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