Discrepancy in two Matlab session results

I am dividing similar numbers in two matlab sessions, in one I get 0.5 as expected in the another I get: 0.499999825156179

Does someone know why?

[Mischa Kim]

Please share your code

[dpb]

>> 0.5-0.499999825156179
ans =
   1.7484e-07
>> 

As Mischa requests, we couldn't say why precisely w/o the code to see the details of how the two sessions differ and the code and data used.

As the above difference shows, the difference is just about the precision of a single precision floating point number; the usual reason for such differences something like having written a value to a text file with only 7-8 digits of precision and then reading it back as compared to another case of entering an exact value at keyboard.

There are an infinite number of "variation on a theme" of the scenario, of course.

Answer 1

[Gaurav Garg]

Hi,

You can set the precision of the variables used by using digits function (doc link).

Print the operation using vpa operation and you will get the answer according to the specified precision.

vpa(0.5-0.499999825156179)