How to add more than 15 decimals

**MMTZ2212** · 06-06-2013, 01:47 PM

Hi to every one!
I have a problem, my excel knowledge is basic, so please be patient with me

. I need some help with the following:
I need to sum some value that has 15 decimals. I enter the number but it changes, seems that the number is round up. And I want it to stay with the 15 decimlas.

I enter 1.785714285714285
and the result in excel is = 1.758714285714280

I tried with the text function and it works, but since i have to put another numbers with the same decimals and then get a sum of them, and since they are text, the value is 0.00000 how can i fix this? Please explain step by step.

1.785714285714285
1.785714285714285
1.785714285714285
1.785714285714285
_________________

i got a total sum of 7.142857142857120
and should be 7.142857142857140

Please explain why? Remember that I am a beginner excel user.

thank you,

**Pete_UK** · 06-06-2013, 02:02 PM

There is a limit to the precision of numbers that Excel can handle (15 decimal places). There is no way you can change that behaviour.

As you have found, you can store more digits by treating the numbers as text values, but then the digits are just characters in a string - you can't carry out any arithmetic on them.

Hope this helps.

Pete

**MMTZ2212** · 06-06-2013, 02:08 PM

Thanks Pete_UK for your response.

**ChemistB** · 06-06-2013, 02:36 PM

Curious as to what requires that level of accuracy.

If the circumference of the earth were calculated using π rounded to only the ninth decimal place, an error of no more than one quarter of an inch in 25,000 miles would result.

Thirty-nine decimal places of pi suffice for computing the circumference of a circle girding the known universe with an error no greater than the radius of a hydrogen atom.