ujukomaarvude

Ujukomaarvude, also known as floating-point numbers, are a numerical representation system used in computing to approximate real numbers. They are characterized by a mantissa (also called significand) and an exponent. The mantissa represents the significant digits of the number, while the exponent determines the magnitude or position of the decimal point. This structure allows for a wide range of values to be represented, from very small to very large, albeit with a trade-off in precision.

The most common standard for floating-point representation is the IEEE 754 standard. This standard defines formats such as single-precision (32-bit) and double-precision (64-bit) floating-point numbers. Single-precision offers a balance between range and precision, while double-precision provides greater accuracy and a wider range at the cost of more memory and computational resources.

Due to their approximate nature, floating-point numbers can lead to small inaccuracies in calculations. These inaccuracies can arise from rounding errors during arithmetic operations or when converting decimal numbers to their binary floating-point representation. For applications requiring exact decimal arithmetic, such as financial calculations, fixed-point arithmetic or specialized decimal data types are often preferred. However, for general-purpose scientific and engineering computations, floating-point numbers are indispensable.