Author: Bart Hendrix
Date: 2003-03-31 03:56
The problem with math majors is that they tend to think only in theory. Science, on the other hand, deals with the real world and knows that data comes from measuring. We generally handle rounding in the same way except when the first number past the point to which you want to round is exactly 5 (no more, no less -- that is, no additional digits beyond it other than zeros). In that case, if the number we are rounding to is odd, we round up but, if it is even, we truncate. That way, measurement errors tend to cancel each other out (it is not possible to take an infinitely precise measurement -- that's why we use significant digits).
On the other hand, this is really getting off the subject of clarinets.
Cheers!
;^)
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The Clarinet BBoard
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