Questions tagged [floating-point]

From Wikipedia:

In computing, floating point describes a method of representing an approximation to real numbers in a way that can support a wide range of values. The numbers are, in general, represented approximately to a fixed number of significant digits (the mantissa) and scaled using an exponent. The base for the scaling is normally 2, 10 or 16.

From Wikipedia:

In computing, floating point describes a method of representing an approximation to real numbers in a way that can support a wide range of values. The numbers are, in general, represented approximately to a fixed number of significant digits (the mantissa) and scaled using an exponent. The base for the scaling is normally 2, 10 or 16.

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Floating point: understanding their inaccuracy

I am trying to understand why a floating point is inaccurate. Please bear in mind that I am not a mathematician. What is exactly the difference between floating point and double integers? and why use one rather than the other? Thanks for any "easy…
Robert Buckley
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