Numerical analysis: Difference between revisions

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BCE is more appropriate
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[[File:Handbook of Mathematical Functions, by Abramowitz and Stegun, cover.jpg|right|thumb|NIST publication]]
To facilitate computations by hand, large books were produced with formulas and tables of data such as interpolation points and function coefficients. Using these tables, often calculated out to 16 decimal places or more for some functions, one could look up values to plug into the formulas given and achieve very good numerical estimates of some functions. The canonical work in the field is the [[NIST]] publication edited by [[Abramowitz and Stegun]], a 1000-plus page book of a very large number of commonly used formulas and functions and their values at many points. The function values are no longer very useful when a computer is available, but the large listing of formulas can still be very handy.