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People often have the idea that a digital readout implies a more precise measurement. I see this often in scales, thermometers, etc.
by tobinfricke 6y ago
People often have the idea that a digital readout implies a more precise measurement. I see this often in scales, thermometers, etc.
- Doxin 6y agoTo be fair, it's true for scales and thermometers.
- sratner 6y agoIt is often more precise, not necessarily more accurate. People often don't distinguish between the two.
- throwaway744678 6y agoNot a native speaker; I think I understand your point, though I fail to see a distinction between these two words: if the output is a number to the nth decimal, but it is not "accurate" (ie. the numbers are actually wrong), can it still be said to be "precise" ?
- 74ls00 6y agoPrecise means lots of fine-grained information; accurate means close to the truth. If the weather is 20° exactly and one thermometer reads 20.2° and another 20.562° the first can be described as more accurate and the latter as more precise. Hence the expression, “precisely wrong”.
- JorgeGT 6y agoYes, here's the typical example used to explain the difference between the two: https://blog.forecast.it/hs-fs/hubfs/accuracy-precision.jpg https://blog.forecast.it/hs-fs/hubfs/accuracy-precision.jpg In terms of probability density: https://www.allsensors.com/images/engineering/figure-1.png https://www.allsensors.com/images/engineering/figure-1.png