2 ms·
Yep. The weird thing is that their sigfig rules of thumb aren't particularly accurate and after any non-trivial operations (or more than a few operations) just
by nullc 6y ago
Yep. The weird thing is that their sigfig rules of thumb aren't particularly accurate and after any non-trivial operations (or more than a few operations) just give wrong results.
Tracking precision through calculations requires interval arithmetic, which is a pretty big PITA and not frequently used.
I think the sig figs cult comes out of mistaking a simplified lesson on precision for a useful practice.
- LasEspuelas 6y agoNot sure exactly what you mean. It is well known that you should keep additional digits throughout the calculation and then drop non-significant ones for final results.
- nullc 6y agoThe number of digits out is only a simple function of the digits in if you're doing fairly trivial calculations. Checkout https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_arithmetic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_arithmetic for what it takes to monitor precision through complex calculations (in particular, see the bits about using the taylor expansions of non-trivial functions).