Re: xkcd: Tukey

On Fri, 20 Jun 2025 17:56:59 -0500, Lynn McGuire
<lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:

xkcd: Tukey
   https://www.xkcd.com/3104/
>
So true, so true.  I can always tell who is a new user of simulation
software, they expect to get 9 (ppb, parts per billion) or 12 (ppt,
parts per trillion) digits of precision out of our software.  I will go
through my explanation of how simulation software is based on
experimental data of 2 or 3 digits of precision and watch their faces
change when they start to understand.
>
Explained at:
   https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/3104:_Tukey

Of course they can get 9ppb out. Computers have no problem computing
on and on if you let them. It's just that everything after the second
decimal digit (or whatever the value for the answer is) will be
garbage.

These are the people the <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinkenlights>
posters were meant to address.
--
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"