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From: Bret Cahill on 17 Jan 2010 00:01
The importance of a measurement to life, limb, prosperity and
happiness is always inversely proportional to the number of that
measurement's sig figs.


Bret Cahill










From: Uncle Al on 17 Jan 2010 20:14
Bret Cahill wrote:
>
> The importance of a measurement to life, limb, prosperity and
> happiness is always inversely proportional to the number of that
> measurement's sig figs.

Bridges have fallen because slide rules were short one or two terminal
digits of e. How round do you want your auto rims re pi? Do you want
rotor blades to work in your turbines and jet engines? Do you want
the SR-71's air throttle cones to work? Stealth on a non-facetted
airframe? The way a Firescope/Ideal-Scope reinvented diamond
cutting? Marcel Tolkowsky in 1919 could not perform enough total
internal reflectance iterations.

You are wrong. You've never machined anything valuable in your life.

--
Uncle Al
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/
(Toxic URL! Unsafe for children and most mammals)
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/qz4.htm
From: Bret Cahill on 18 Jan 2010 00:32
> > The importance of a measurement to life, limb, prosperity and
> > happiness is always inversely proportional to the number of that
> > measurement's sig figs.

> Bridges have fallen because slide rules were short one or two terminal
> digits of e.  

More often the wrong joint, fitting or connector was used like that
interstate bridge that finally collapsed in MN a few years ago.

> How round do you want your auto rims re pi?  Do you want
> rotor blades to work in your turbines and jet engines?  Do you want
> the SR-71's air throttle cones to work?  Stealth on a non-facetted
> airframe?  The way a Firescope/Ideal-Scope reinvented diamond
> cutting?  Marcel Tolkowsky in 1919 could not perform enough total
> internal reflectance iterations.
>
> You are wrong.  You've never machined anything valuable in your life.

High tolerances are vastly overrated.

Bread requires exact measurements. Three cups of unpacked flour, 1
cup of water . . .


Bret Cahill


From: Bret Cahill on 20 Jan 2010 02:39
> The importance of a measurement to life, limb, prosperity and
> happiness is always inversely proportional to the number of that
> measurement's sig figs.

It's so easy to diminish the importance of precision it's surprising
more hasn't been done on this matter.


Bret Cahill

From: Robert on 20 Jan 2010 04:43
On 20 Jan, 07:39, Bret Cahill <BretCah...(a)peoplepc.com> wrote:
> > The importance of a measurement to life, limb, prosperity and
> > happiness is always inversely proportional to the number of that
> > measurement's sig figs.
>
> It's so easy to diminish the importance of precision it's surprising
> more hasn't been done on this matter.
>
> Bret Cahill

moving from "*always* inversely proportional", to "vastly overrated"
is quite a climb down in your thesis.

knowing what precision is necessary, whether that is high or low
precision (and you can find endless examples of both), is the art,
rather than maximising precision for its own sake.
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