| From: | Peter Eisentraut <peter_e(at)gmx(dot)net> |
|---|---|
| To: | Csaba Nagy <nagy(at)ecircle-ag(dot)com> |
| Cc: | pgsql-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org, Martijn van Oosterhout <kleptog(at)svana(dot)org> |
| Subject: | Re: [OT] somebody could explain this? |
| Date: | 2005-11-04 17:39:56 |
| Message-ID: | 200511041839.56772.peter_e@gmx.net |
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| Lists: | 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/
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