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Time as dimension variable

D. J. Raymond (raymond@kestrel.nmt.edu)
Tue, 4 Feb 92 18:13:21 MST

Hi,

Dan Packman raises an important issue in that a single precision
variable doesn't give enough accuracy for time in some circumstances.
A more elegant solution than having two time variables would be to have
double precision dimension variables. I think that IEEE double precision
has enough bits to keep millisecond time for 10000 years -- it takes
49 bits to do this. If dimension variables can be only single or
double precision, I would choose double precision. This would not
waste much space in situations where such precision wasn't needed, so
the overhead would be small.

Dave Raymond
raymond@kestrel.nmt.edu

 
 
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