  It is often assumed that for treating numerical (or experimental) data on
continuous transitions the formal analysis derived from the Renormalization
Group Theory can only be applied over a narrow temperature range, the "critical
region"; outside this region correction terms proliferate rendering attempts to
apply the formalism hopeless. This pessimistic conclusion follows largely from
a choice of scaling variables and scaling expressions which is traditional but
which is very inefficient for data covering wide temperature ranges. An
alternative "extended caling" approach can be made where the choice of scaling
variables and scaling expressions is rationalized in the light of well
established high temperature series expansion developments. We present the
extended scaling approach in detail, and outline the numerical technique used
to study the 3d Ising model. After a discussion of the exact expressions for
the historic 1d Ising spin chain model as an illustration, an exhaustive
analysis of high quality numerical data on the canonical simple cubic lattice
3d Ising model is given. It is shown that in both models, with appropriate
scaling variables and scaling expressions (in which leading correction terms
are taken into account where necessary), critical behavior extends from Tc up
to infinite temperature.
