On Fri, Nov 04, 2005 at 18:30:56 +0100, Csaba Nagy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 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. ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 4: Have you searched our list archives? http://archives.postgresql.org