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by justifier 3751 days ago
i wonder if interest in measuring error of previous calculations is what encouraged this direction of computational rigor

respecting accuracy encourages a self awareness with an almost conscious stead ignorant error

i am always intrigued when it is discussed how a calculation began and the error of the initial values

the first known attempt at measuring the speed of light(o) had an ignorant error of ~26%

the first known attempt at measuring the circumference of the earth(i) had an ignorant error of ~15%

    > our planet Earth.. the circumference ..
    > .. would .. be if you used the limited version of pi above? 
    > It would be off by the size of a molecule. 
our conscious error is the size of a molecule, but what will our ignorant error be? how will its significance manifest?

the ignorant error is a result of the tools of measure, in this case observable measurements and numerical approximation

for those who calculated using pi equal to 22/7, for the circumference, their error would only be ~.04% of the 15 digit rounded value

    >>>2*(22/7)*(7926/2)>>> 2*(22/7)*(7926/2)
     24910.285714285714
    >>> 2*(3.141592653589793)*(7926/2) #from the article
     24900.2633723527
    >>> 24910.285714285714/24900.2633723527
     1.0004024994347707
    >>> (1.0004024994347707-1)*100   
     0.04024994347706645

(o) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_light#First_measureme...

(i) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eratosthenes#Measurement_of_th...

.. edit, percentage error, left out the *100

1 comments

That should be 0.04% not 0.0004%, no? You need to multiply by 100 for percent?
and the ever present undiscussed other..

add human error to the list