I have two lists of fractions;
say A = [ 1/212, 5/212, 3/212, ... ]
and B = [ 4/143, 7/143, 2/143, ... ].
If we define A' = a[0] * a[1] * a[2] * ... and B' = b[0] * b[1] * b[2] * ...
I want to calculate the values of A' / B',
My trouble is A are B are both quite long and each value is small so calculating the product causes numerical underflow very quickly...
I understand turning the product into a sum through logarithms can help me determine which of A' or B' is greater
ie max( log(a[0])+log(a[1])+..., log(b[0])+log(b[1])+... )
but i need the actual ratio....
My best bet to date is to keep the number representations as fractions, ie A = [ [1,212], [5,212], [3,212], ... ] and implement my own arithmetic but it's getting clumsy and I have a feeling there is a (simple) way of logarithms I'm just missing....
The numerators for A and B don't come from a sequence. They might as well be random for the purpose of this question. If it helps the denominators for all values in A are the same, as are all the denominators for B.
Any ideas most welcome!
Mat
You could calculate it in a slightly different order:
A' / B' = a[0] / b[0] * a[1] / b[1] * a[2] / b[2] * ...