Machine epsilon

Machine epsilon or machine precision is an upper bound on the relative approximation error due to rounding in floating point arithmetic. This value characterizes computer arithmetic in the field of numerical analysis, and by extension in the subject of computational science. The quantity is also called macheps and it has the symbols Greek epsilon .

There are two prevailing definitions. In numerical analysis, machine epsilon is dependent on the type of rounding used and is also called unit roundoff, which has the symbol bold Roman u. However, by a less formal, but more widely used definition, machine epsilon is independent of rounding method and may be equivalent to u or 2u.