If you don't set the default scale, be careful when you're chaining together several BC math functions - since by default, these functions will round off your values, losing accuracy very quickly:
<?php
$a = 1.234
$b = 2.345
$c = 7.890
$ab = bcmul($a,$b); // 2
$abc = bcmul($ab,$c);
echo $abc; // 15
?>
... compare with the answer you get when you use more decimal places:
<?php
$a = 1.234
$b = 2.345
$c = 7.890
bcscale(15);
$ab = bcmul($a,$b); // 2.893730
$abc = bcmul($ab,$c);
echo $abc; // 22.83152970
?>
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