[Maxima] strange behaviour with simple decimals / Axiom

[Jay Belanger]

Richard Fateman <fateman at cs.berkeley.edu> writes:

> In Axiom version of  1/17/2005
>
> 1.4^2  comes out as 1.96
>
> 1.96 - 1.4^2  comes out as  0.7 E -20

Same thing for the latest (gold) version of Axiom.

> I don't know if this counts as unexpected to a 5th grader, but does a
> 5th grader even know about "E" scientific notation?

I'd be happy if my college students could handle "E" notation.

Jay