MATLAB: Error (rounding or user) in simple math op

MATLABsimple math

I just noticed odd behavior in R2012b that really seems like an error though perhaps I'm making a foolish error?
I enter the following >> 2.7+1.8*[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]
I expect 4.5 6.3 8.1 9.9 11.7 13.5 15.3 17.1 18.9
I get: ans =
Columns 1 through 5
   4.500000000000000   6.300000000000001   8.100000000000001  9.900000000000000  11.699999999999999
Columns 6 through 9
   13.500000000000000  15.300000000000001  17.100000000000001  18.899999999999999
This seems odd to me for obvious reasons. Even something simple like
>> 1.8*9
ans =
16.199999999999999
how could this be happening?
Thank you
(p.s. its 8.0.0.783 R2012b)

Best Answer

Use
 format short
The problem is simply caused by the way, real data are stored in memory
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