Excel: #NUM! Error Returned with 68881 Math Coprocessor

Last reviewed: October 31, 1994
Article ID: Q27817

SUMMARY

There is an underflow error that is returned from a 68881 math coprocessor (as built into the Macintosh II and onto accelerator boards that use the 68020 coprocessor and the 68881 math chip).

When a number is entered in the range of 10^-20 or less (10 to the negative 20th power or smaller) and then the number is raised to a power less than 1, #NUM! will be returned as the answer even though Excel can handle numbers as small as 2.225E-308.

MORE INFORMATION

The largest positive number that can be used is 1.798E308, and the smallest number that can be used is 2.225E-308. If a number is entered that does not fall in this range, Excel stores the number as text.

For Macintosh computers using the 68881 math coprocessor, this calculation error is a known problem:

   A1:  "1e-20"
   A2:  "=A1^0.08333"      This will display #NUM! in A2.

Microsoft is researching this problem and will post new information here as it becomes available.

KBCategory: kbother
KBSubcategory:
Additional reference words: 1.00 1.03 1.04 1.06 noupd

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Last reviewed: October 31, 1994
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