Dueling Calculators

Observe how eight-digit and nine-digit calculators compare with iteration of two different functions. Choose your function from the menu above the calculators.

The slider at the top allows you to choose any initial value between 0 and 1, or you can use the default value, 0.7391. The initial input is the same for both calculators.

When you click the play button, the first nine-digit output is fed back into the nine-digit calculator (blue column), and its nine-digit output goes back into the same calculator. At the same time, the initial input is fed into the eight-digit calculator, whose output appears in red, and the eight-digit output is fed back into the same calculator. The process is repeated until you press either the pause or the stop button.

The output from the two machines is plotted on the graph in corresponding colors. The results of the first few iterations are so close that the graphs are essentially identical, but as the differences grow, the red graph and the blue graph begin to separate and are soon wildly different.