Not just precision, but it also allows more extreme values. Very large or very small numbers. In statistics numbers often get very small because they represen

Not just precision, but it also allows more extreme values. Very large or very small numbers. In statistics numbers often get very small because they represent probabilities. Sometimes they transform into the log domain, but that has a lot of disadvantages. You lose zero, negative numbers, addition is difficult, and you get vastly more precision near zero than near one.