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Re: [Phys-l] Significant figures -- again



"Is writing 400 days at each company any better or worse than writing 365.2425 days at each company?"

It depends on who is asking. When I filled out the paperwork to get my Q-clearance for working at Los Alamos, I got into trouble for lying to the FBI. I wrote down that for the summers between my school-years in college I lived at my parent's home and worked in a factory in my home town. Upon investigation, the FBI discovered that during one of those summers I slept for two weeks in a home in a neighboring village so I could house-sit for a friend and take care of his dog while he was on vacation. When I had to change the paperwork to include those two weeks of "living at a different residence", I asked if they wanted me to account for my whereabouts year by year, or month by month, or week by week, or day by day, or minute by minute. The guy then yelled at me for being a smart-ass, and he never did answer my question. I wasn't sure what to do about vacations, and times spent visiting grandparents and aunts and uncles. I figured since they were asking only about that p
articular two-week period, I would change only that. It worked.

One man's reasonable approximations are another man's lack of appropriate detail.

Michael D. Edmiston, PhD.
Professor of Chemistry and Physics
Chair, Division of Natural and Applied Sciences
Bluffton University
Bluffton, OH 45817
Office 419-358-3270
Cell 419-230-9657



-----Original Message-----
From: phys-l-bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu [mailto:phys-l-bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu] On Behalf Of Robert Cohen
Sent: Friday, April 13, 2012 4:29 PM
To: Forum for Physics Educators
Subject: Re: [Phys-l] Significant figures -- again

I don't have a problem with your main message. It just seems to me that an example like Bob and Carol illustrates it better.

Or, even simpler...

I worked a year at company A, took some time off, then worked a year at company B. How many days did I work at each company?

Is writing 400 days at each company any better or worse than writing 365.2425 days at each company?

I would say it would be neither better nor worse without some way of conveying the uncertainty. However, lacking that information, it would be worse if someone was using the value to make additional calculations (like the total number of days all together) and better if one was using the number itself to convey some vague idea about the uncertainty (e.g., "about 400 days" vs. "about 365.2425 days").

Is this improper?

Robert A. Cohen, Department of Physics, East Stroudsburg University
570.422.3428 rcohen@esu.edu http://www.esu.edu/~bbq


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