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Is the "e" character used to denote an invalid number in graphics data?

I've got a graphical program that's exporting a data file with numbers such as: -1.33227e-015 and -4.02456e-016.

I've long been perplexed by the "e-" notation. Is it used to denote an invalid number? What sort of valid value can I extract from the above numbers? What are they trying to say?

Solution

  • e means "× 10^". It standard for exponent.

    e.g. 1.33227e-015 means 1.33227 × 10-15 and -4.02456e-016 means -4.02456 × 10-16.

    See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_notation#E_notation for detail.