The difference between accuracy and precision.
Comment on Leaked Email Shows Elon Musk Demanding "Sub 10 Micron Accuracy” Cybertruck Parts
ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.de 1 year agoMy grandpa once published an article where he turned a tree circumference (obtained using a tape measure) into a “diameter estimate” with 6 significant figures. Turns out, he was wrong on the 4^th^ digit because he used π=3.14…
squaresinger@feddit.de 1 year ago
fubo@lemmy.world 1 year ago
My high-school chemistry teacher would dock a point for each extra digit past the calculation’s actual precision. We learned quickly not to overstate our sig figs.
An answer written as “3” means that the true value is somewhere between 2½ and 3½. If you write “3.19142” when what you actually know is “3”, you’re incorrectly excluding the vast majority of the possible true values.
ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.de 1 year ago
Our physics teacher taught measurements and uncertainties as the very first thing in our multi-year syllabus. All answers thereafter needed to be in the precision implied from the number of significant figures in the given figures and error propagation.