title: When should I use double instead of decimal?
body: <p>I can name three advantages to using <code>double</code> (or <code>float</code>) instead of <code>decimal</code>:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Uses less memory.</li>
  <li>Faster because floating point math operations are natively supported by processors.</li>
  <li>Can represent a larger range of numbers.</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>But these advantages seem to apply only to calculation intensive operations, such as those found in modeling software. Of course, doubles should not be used when precision is required, such as financial calculations. So are there any practical reasons to ever choose <code>double</code> (or <code>float</code>) instead of <code>decimal</code> in "normal" applications?</p>
  
  <p>Edited to add:
  Thanks for all the great responses, I learned from them.</p>
  
  <p>One further question: A few people made the point that doubles can more precisely represent real numbers. When declared I would think that they usually more accurately represent them as well. But is it a true statement that the accuracy may decrease (sometimes significantly) when floating point operations are performed?</p>