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precision of a measurement (documentation related question)

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg61598] precision of a measurement (documentation related question)
• From: Chris Chiasson <chris.chiasson at gmail.com>
• Date: Sun, 23 Oct 2005 05:46:05 -0400 (EDT)
• Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

Hi Mathgroup,
If I know that a number (say in inches, measured on a ruler that only
has marks for inches) and its error are:
30 + or - 0.5,
then looking at the help file for Precision, I see that the precision is:
-Log[10,dx/x]
In this case, is dx = 0.5 or is it equal to 1.0??
I have noticed that in either case, the number of significant
digits/the precision is less than 2.

Your thoughts?
--
Chris Chiasson
http://chrischiasson.com/contact/chris_chiasson