Exploring C++20: The Programmer's Introduction to C++

© Ray Lischner 2020

R. LischnerExploring C++20https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-5961-0_27

27. Very Big and Very Little Numbers

Ray Lischner¹ 

(1)

Ellicott City, MD, USA

 

Even the longest long long cannot represent truly large numbers, such as Avogadro’s number (6.02×10²³) or extremely small numbers, such as the mass of an electron (9.1×10^–31 kg). Scientists and engineers use scientific notation, which consists of a mantissa (such as 6.02 or 9.1) and an exponent (such as 23 or –31), relative to a base (10).

Computers represent very large and very small numbers using a similar representation, known as floating-point . I know many of you have been waiting eagerly for this Exploration, as you’ve probably grown tired of using only integers, so let’s jump ...