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Groups > comp.soft-sys.math.mathematica > #3610

Re: Numerical accuracy/precision - this is a bug or a feature?

From "Oleksandr Rasputinov" <oleksandr_rasputinov@hmamail.com>
Newsgroups comp.soft-sys.math.mathematica
Subject Re: Numerical accuracy/precision - this is a bug or a feature?
Date 2011-07-09 11:37 +0000
Organization Steven M. Christensen and Associates, Inc and MathTensor, Inc.
Message-ID <iv9ehj$dct$1@smc.vnet.net> (permalink)
References <ius5op$2g7$1@smc.vnet.net> <ius7b6$30t$1@smc.vnet.net>

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On Fri, 08 Jul 2011 09:51:53 +0100, Noqsi <noqsiaerospace@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Jul 7, 5:40 am, "slawek" <sla...@host.pl> wrote:
>
>> The convention that 2.0 is less accurate than 2.00 is applied ONLY in
>> Mathematica (the computer program).
>
> Not true. This is a long-standing convention in experimental science.
>

Unfortunately so, given that it is severely erroneous: see e.g.  
<http://www.av8n.com/physics/uncertainty.htm>. However, Mathematica's  
approximation of how these uncertainties propagate is first-order, not  
zeroth-order. This does not make it completely reliable, of course, but  
certainly it is not almost always wrong as is the significant digits  
convention. Within the bounds of its own applicability, Mathematica's  
approximation is reasonable, although it would still be a mistake to apply  
it to experimental uncertainty analysis given the much broader scope of  
the latter.

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Thread

Numerical accuracy/precision - this is a bug or a feature? "slawek" <slawek@host.pl> - 2011-07-04 10:47 +0000
  Re: Numerical accuracy/precision - this is a bug or a feature? "Kevin J. McCann" <kjm@KevinMcCann.com> - 2011-07-04 11:14 +0000
    Re: Numerical accuracy/precision - this is a bug or a feature? "slawek" <slawek@host.pl> - 2011-07-05 09:17 +0000
      Re: Numerical accuracy/precision - this is a bug or a feature? "Kevin J. McCann" <Kevin.McCann@umbc.edu> - 2011-07-06 09:35 +0000
        Re: Numerical accuracy/precision - this is a bug or a feature? "slawek" <slawek@host.pl> - 2011-07-07 11:40 +0000
      Re: Numerical accuracy/precision - this is a bug or a feature? Daniel Lichtblau <danl@wolfram.com> - 2011-07-07 11:34 +0000
    Re: Numerical accuracy/precision - this is a bug or a feature? "Oleksandr Rasputinov" <oleksandr_rasputinov@hmamail.com> - 2011-07-06 09:39 +0000
      Re: Numerical accuracy/precision - this is a bug or a feature? Richard Fateman <fateman@cs.berkeley.edu> - 2011-07-07 11:33 +0000
    Re: Numerical accuracy/precision - this is a bug or a feature? Noqsi <noqsiaerospace@gmail.com> - 2011-07-08 08:51 +0000
      Re: Numerical accuracy/precision - this is a bug or a feature? "slawek" <slawek@host.pl> - 2011-07-12 11:01 +0000
    Re: Numerical accuracy/precision - this is a bug or a feature? "Oleksandr Rasputinov" <oleksandr_rasputinov@hmamail.com> - 2011-07-08 09:04 +0000
      Re: Numerical accuracy/precision - this is a bug or a feature? Richard Fateman <fateman@cs.berkeley.edu> - 2011-07-09 11:34 +0000
      Re: Numerical accuracy/precision - this is a bug or a feature? "slawek" <slawek@host.pl> - 2011-07-12 11:02 +0000
    Re: Numerical accuracy/precision - this is a bug or a feature? "Oleksandr Rasputinov" <oleksandr_rasputinov@hmamail.com> - 2011-07-09 11:37 +0000
      Re: Numerical accuracy/precision - this is a bug or a feature? Noqsi <noqsiaerospace@gmail.com> - 2011-07-13 07:11 +0000
        Re: Numerical accuracy/precision - this is a bug or a feature? Richard Fateman <fateman@cs.berkeley.edu> - 2011-07-14 09:23 +0000
        Re: Numerical accuracy/precision - this is a bug or a feature? Andrzej Kozlowski <akoz@mimuw.edu.pl> - 2011-07-15 01:19 +0000
        Re: Numerical accuracy/precision - this is a bug or a feature? "W. Craig Carter" <ccarter@mit.edu> - 2011-07-15 01:25 +0000
        Re: Numerical accuracy/precision - this is a bug or a feature? Andrzej Kozlowski <akoz@mimuw.edu.pl> - 2011-07-15 08:12 +0000
        Re: Numerical accuracy/precision - this is a bug or a feature? Andrzej Kozlowski <akoz@mimuw.edu.pl> - 2011-07-16 09:45 +0000
        Re: Numerical accuracy/precision - this is a bug or a feature? Andrzej Kozlowski <akoz@mimuw.edu.pl> - 2011-07-16 09:40 +0000
    Re: Numerical accuracy/precision - this is a bug or a feature? Noqsi <noqsiaerospace@gmail.com> - 2011-07-13 07:12 +0000
    Re: Numerical accuracy/precision - this is a bug or a feature? Noqsi <noqsiaerospace@gmail.com> - 2011-07-15 01:23 +0000
      Re: Numerical accuracy/precision - this is a bug or a feature? Richard Fateman <fateman@cs.berkeley.edu> - 2011-07-15 08:10 +0000
    Re: Numerical accuracy/precision - this is a bug or a feature? Noqsi <noqsiaerospace@gmail.com> - 2011-07-16 09:41 +0000
      Re: Numerical accuracy/precision - this is a bug or a feature? Richard Fateman <fateman@cs.berkeley.edu> - 2011-07-17 10:02 +0000
        Re: Numerical accuracy/precision - this is a bug or a feature? "slawek" <slawek@host.pl> - 2011-07-18 10:14 +0000
      Re: Numerical accuracy/precision - this is a bug or a feature? Andrzej Kozlowski <akoz@mimuw.edu.pl> - 2011-07-18 10:17 +0000
        Re: Numerical accuracy/precision - this is a bug or a feature? Richard Fateman <fateman@cs.berkeley.edu> - 2011-07-19 10:55 +0000
  Re: Numerical accuracy/precision - this is a bug or a feature? "Kevin J. McCann" <kjm@KevinMcCann.com> - 2011-07-04 11:18 +0000
    Re: Numerical accuracy/precision - this is a bug or a feature? Richard Fateman <fateman@cs.berkeley.edu> - 2011-07-05 09:15 +0000
      Re: Numerical accuracy/precision - this is a bug or a feature? "slawek" <slawek@host.pl> - 2011-07-06 09:34 +0000
      Re: Numerical accuracy/precision - this is a bug or a feature? Daniel Lichtblau <danl@wolfram.com> - 2011-07-07 11:35 +0000
        Re: Numerical accuracy/precision - this is a bug or a feature? Richard Fateman <fateman@cs.berkeley.edu> - 2011-07-08 08:53 +0000

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