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Gav Cooper
4,261 PointsExponents - (Python Basics 'Numeric' video)
I was just watching the video in the title of the post and the instructor said that when the Python interpreter outputs something like 5.1234423634e-17 that that means it's 5.1234423634 to the power of -17. I always thought that Python used 'Standard Form' for things like this so that 5.1234423634e-17 actually means 5.1234423634 x 10^-17 i.e. 17 zeroes before the 5.123...
Can anybody clear this up?
2 Answers
Jennifer Nordell
Treehouse TeacherGavin Cooper I'm with you. I believe he misspoke here. He meant 5.5 times 10 raised to the negative 17th power, but what came out was 5.5 raised to the negative 17th power. He does say this immediately afterwards:
So, this is really 0 point and then 17 0s, and then a 5.
Which would indicate that Python interprets that e-17 as times 10 to the negative 17th power.
Hope this helps!
Gav Cooper
4,261 PointsThanks, maybe I should listen more carefully next time :P