Letters within integers. What are they?
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;
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
That's Exponential notation
1E-14 is 1 times 10 to the power of -14