title: Extreme numerical values in floating-point precision in R
body: <p>Can somebody please explain me the following output. I know that it has something to do with floating point precision, but the order of magnitue (difference 1e308) surprises me.</p>
  
  <p>0: high precision</p>
  
  <pre><code>&gt; 1e-324==0
  [1] TRUE
  &gt; 1e-323==0
  [1] FALSE
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>1: very unprecise</p>
  
  <pre><code>&gt; 1 - 1e-16 == 1
  [1] FALSE
  &gt; 1 - 1e-17 == 1
  [1] TRUE
  </code></pre>