Re: [OT] somebody could explain this? - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

From Peter Eisentraut
Subject Re: [OT] somebody could explain this?
Date
Msg-id 200511041839.56772.peter_e@gmx.net
Whole thread Raw
In response to Re: [OT] somebody could explain this?  (Csaba Nagy <nagy@ecircle-ag.com>)
List pgsql-hackers
Csaba Nagy wrote:
> [snip]
>
> > Floating points numbers are accurate but not precise.
>
> OK, now this one beats me... what's the difference between "accurate"
> and "exact" ? I thought both mean something like "correct", but
> precise refers to some action and accurate applies to a situation or
> description...

Accurate means close to the real value, precise means having a lot of 
detail.

So 3 is more accurate than 4 as a representation of "Pi", but both are 
not very precise.

5.32290753057207250735 is a very precise representation of "Pi" but 
totally inaccurate.

This also means that the statement at the top is wrong.  It should be 
the other way around.

-- 
Peter Eisentraut
http://developer.postgresql.org/~petere/


pgsql-hackers by date:

Previous
From: Csaba Nagy
Date:
Subject: Re: [OT] somebody could explain this?
Next
From: "Kevin Grittner"
Date:
Subject: Re: PG 8.1 supported platforms list: IRIX is MIA