How R handle small numbers?

Asked Jan 21 '19 at 14:01

Active Jan 21 '19 at 16:54

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I was trying a small basic code on how R handles small numbers as shown below. I know that for fractions which cannot be represented internally, the computer rounds off to the near approximate value.

I tried computing (1+ex1-1) by assigning ex1 from 10^-1 to 10^-11 and each time I got ex1 as output which was right. But assigning ex1 from 10^-12 and there on, the output seems to be wrong. For the second case, I am still wondering why the output is not same as ex1.

> ex1 <- 10^-11
> (1+ex1)-1
[1] 1e-11

> ex1 <- 10^-12
> (1+ex1)-1
[1] 1.000089e-12

I tried looking at the other stack answer but couldn't find one. This might be duplicate but I am looking for an answer or at least a hint.

edited Jan 21 '19 at 16:54

asked Jan 21 '19 at 14:01

Naveen Gabriel

1

Maybe this helps: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9508518/why-are-these-numbers-not-equal – RLave Jan 21 '19 at 14:03
Your code is very hard to read. Please put spaces *at least* around `<-`. – Roland Jan 21 '19 at 14:47

How R handle small numbers?

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