On Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:50:13 -0400, Terry Reedy <tjre...@udel.edu> wrote: > On 4/18/2012 2:45 AM, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote: > > On Wed, Apr 18, 2012 at 8:25 AM, Victor Stinner > > <victor.stin...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > >> Ok ok, resolution / accuracy / precision are confusing (or at least > >> not well known concepts). > > > > Maybe not to us, but in fields like astronomy and mechanical > > engineering there are commonly accepted definitions: > > > > Resolution: the smallest difference between two physical values that > > results in a different measurement by a given instrument. > > > > Precision: the amount of deviation among measurements of the same > > physical value by a single instrument. > > > > Accuracy: the amount of deviation of measurements by a given > > instrument from true values. > > These are standard definitions in US English that I learned in physics > and statistics decades ago.
My problem was that I was confusing this definition of precision with the "precision" of the computer representation of the number (that is, the number of digits in the returned result). --David _______________________________________________ Python-Dev mailing list Python-Dev@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com
