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Re: Significant figures - a Modest Proposal



I'm going to spin this issue a little differently. I think it is
important to make the following distinction for students. Mathematics
deals with issues of equality...is one thing equal to another. In
science, everything rests eventually on some sort of measurement and the
results of two different measurements, no matter what we do, are not the
same. So the issue never is equal, rather it is, are two values close
enough that we are willing to say they are the same. That is a judgment
call....but you need some basis for making the judgment.
First you need a precise way of truthfully representing the values...that
is where the sig fig issue arrises.
Second, you may want to formalize the decision process...that is the role
of statistics.

Now you can carry is discussion as far as you want, depending on the
level of your students, but I think it is imperative that they understand
that we are not in the business of equal. To understand that best, I
think you have to raise these issues at some level.

just a thought,

joe