Question

This is an excerpt of code from a class I am working with in Java (below). Obviously the code is defining a static variable named EPSILON with the data type double. What I don't understand is the "1E-14" part. What kind of number is that? What does it mean?

final double EPSILON = 1E-14;

Was it helpful?

Solution

In your case, this is equivalent to writing:

final double EPSILON = 0.00000000000001;

except you don't have to count the zeros. This is called scientific notation and is helpful when writing very large or very small numbers.

OTHER TIPS

The "E" notation is scientific notation. You'll see it on calculators too. It means "one times (ten to the power of -14)".

For another example, 2E+6 == 2,000,000.

1E3 => 1000

1E-1 => 0.1

1E-2 => 0.01

It's a way for writing 1 * 10-14

1E-14 is 1 times 10 to the power of -14

Licensed under: CC-BY-SA with attribution
Not affiliated with StackOverflow
scroll top