Numerical Analysis

Machine epsilon refers to a parameter of computational precision. For floating point numbers, eps is the distance from 1.0 to the next largest floating point number. For numbers x smaller than eps, floating point math yields the perhaps surprising result
1.0 +x = 1.0             (0 < x < eps)
The machine precision can be determined using an algorithm such as
eps = 1.0;
while (1.0+eps > 1.0)
  eps = eps /2;
end
eps = eps *2;
For IEEE double precision floating point numbers, eps is around 2.2e-16.

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