Timeline for Efficiency of representations of number
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
4 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 8, 2017 at 13:39 | comment | added | timur | I think the relative error is some kind of natural distance corresponding to the multiplicative structure. What puzzles me is why this is important in almost every situation. | |
| Sep 8, 2017 at 13:30 | comment | added | Federico Poloni | Well, relative error is what gives you "order of magnitude" or "only the X most significant digits" information. What you want to do with it depends on your application, but it is a very natural thing to care about. If Ug the caveman has a certain number of sheep, he wants to know if there's 8-12 of them or 80-120 or 800-1200, not other information such as (say) if that number is a multiple of 17. | |
| Sep 8, 2017 at 13:16 | comment | added | timur | Thanks a lot for your answer! Can we justify somehow that the relative error is what we need to care? I apologize if this question is too naive. | |
| Sep 8, 2017 at 13:06 | history | answered | Federico Poloni | CC BY-SA 3.0 |