I'm using MPIR to deal with extremely small numbers. Somehow the answers I'm getting are wrong, and I have no idea why (something with rounding I guess..). How does rounding work in MPIR, and is it the reason for me getting these wrong answers?
Here is the code (the relevant part):
long long a = 100000;
mpf_class calc(p[i],500);
cout << "p[i] = " << setprecision(32) << calc << endl;
calc = 1-calc;
cout << "1-p[i] = " << setprecision(32) << calc << endl;
mpf_pow_ui(calc.get_mpf_t(), calc.get_mpf_t(), a);
cout << "(1-p[i])^a = " << setprecision(32) << calc << endl;
cout << "probLessThanR = " << setprecision(32) << probLessThanR << endl;
calc = 1-calc-probLessThanR;
cout << "1-(1-p[i])^a-probLessThanR = " << setprecision(32) << calc << endl;
if (calc>0)
cout << "calc>0 = " << 1 << endl;
And here is the output for some values of p[i] and probLessThanR:
p[i] = 2.0432284241450287639483056612667e-17
1-p[i] = 0.99999999999999997956771575854971
(1-p[i])^a = 0.99999999999795677157585705860637
probLessThanR = 2.0432284241428158e-012
1-(1-p[i])^a-probLessThanR = 1.2561170838194078535224341399684e-25
calc>0 = 1
p[i] = 2.1679268932387850003127872242701e-17
1-p[i] = 0.99999999999999997832073106761215
(1-p[i])^a = 0.99999999999783207310676356492969
probLessThanR = 2.1679268932410045e-012
1-(1-p[i])^a-probLessThanR = -4.5694136331284619232701251208227e-24
p[i] = 2.2996656655640389938724454087815e-17
1-p[i] = 0.99999999999999997700334334435961
(1-p[i])^a = 0.99999999999770033433443860521077
probLessThanR = 2.2996656655715272e-012
1-(1-p[i])^a-probLessThanR = -1.0132363051975571461595673730287e-23
p[i] = 2.4388090428503683876184122197242e-17
1-p[i] = 0.99999999999999997561190957149632
(1-p[i])^a = 0.99999999999756119095715260547742
probLessThanR = 2.4388090428370166e-012
1-(1-p[i])^a-probLessThanR = 1.0377918963850787511442329601381e-23
calc>0 = 1
All the answers of 1-(1-p[i])^a-probLessThanR
should be positive. I prefer positive and less accurate than negative (but accuracy is really important).
Any Ideas?
Edit: added the output as a text and the value of a. BTW, a is long long for a reason (it can have bigger values).