title: What is the difference in floating point numbers in Matlab and Python?
body: <p>I am importing some numbers into python from a matlab <code>"mat"</code> file version 5 and they have a different precision. </p>
  
  <p>This is the python Code:</p>
  
  <pre><code>output_data = numpy.matlab.loadmat( ( path ), mat_dtype=True )
  
  print(output_data)
  
  Python3 output: -0.0030967733388058967-&gt; 20 numbers or digits
  Matlab output:  -0.00309677333880590  -&gt; 18  "        "
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Why would python and matlab have different precisions?</p>