Re: [OT] somebody could explain this?

On Fri, Nov 04, 2005 at 18:30:56 +0100, Csaba Nagy <nagy@ecircle-ag.com> 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...
> 
> I'm actually curios what it means. Merriam-Webster refers for both to
> "correct" as a synonym.

My memory from science courses a long time ago, is that precision refers
to how much information you have (e.g. the number of digits in a number)
and accuracy refers to how close your information is to reality.
Using a precision that was much higher than justified by accuracy used to
get points deducted from lab report grades.

In mathematics "precise" has a somewhat different meaning, but isn't a synonym
for "accurate" in that context.