JdBP>> Remember that IEEE 754 Short Real (float on most platforms,
 JdBP>> including x86 PCs) has a 23 bit significand, and that IEEE 754
 JdBP>> Long Real (double on most platforms) has a 52 bit significand
 MR> What's IEEE 754 ?
IEEE standard 754.  It defines, amongst other things, three floating point 
representations: Short Real, Long Real, and Extended Real.  As I said, most 
platforms use IEEE floating point.  x86 PCs use IEEE floating point, because 
Intel chose to make its FPUs use IEEE 754.  
So the C++ compilers for those platforms use IEEE floating point for the C++ 
types `float', `double', and `long double'.
 ¯ JdeBP ®
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