In article <40191833.DC831BDF@pacbell.net> , Ken <tyl### [at] pacbellnet>  
wrote:

> After rendering the scene and trying a few things it appears to be a
> mathematical precision error.

Note: Limits of mathematical precision available on any computer are not an
error of the computer.  And they are not an error in POV-Ray either.  It is
very important to make this clear to new users from the very beginning to
avoid misconceptions about what is an error and what is expected but not
necessarily nice property of floating-point* numbers! :-)

    Thorsten

* For anybody wondering what a floating-point number is, the short answer is
that they use various mathematical "tricks" to allow representation of
values of an almost infinite range with only a small number of digits.  The
"tricks" used in essence reduce precision to ten to 15 leftmost digits of
any number.  Of course, all this is a very simplified explanation!

____________________________________________________
Thorsten Froehlich, Duisburg, Germany
e-mail: tho### [at] trfde

Visit POV-Ray on the web: http://mac.povray.org

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