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Re: importance of accuracy in calculations



Bernard Cleyet wrote:

being meticulous means, also, not carrying out calcs. further than justified
by the data, etc. Where I went to school, failing this got docked.

Ahh, but how is the poor student supposed know what is
"necessary"?

Usually the simplest way to know is to do the calculation
multiple times, at higher and higher precision, until it
becomes clear that additional precision won't change the
answer significantly.

In other words, you need to do it more precisely than
necessary just to know what's necessary. Catch-22.

For details see
http://www.monmouth.com/~jsd/physics/measurement-u.htm