and to how many decimal places?

[fumei]

Just read some text that mentioned a "precise estimation".

Hmmmmm.

I can understand an estimation being as precise as possible, but a precise estimation?

However, I found one definition to be - "conforming strictly to rule or proper form". So if a protocol can only return an estimation, if one follows, strictly, the forms and rules of the procedure, can it really be called precise?

Gerry
My paintings and sculpture

 

[Gooser]

So, if that's the argument, maybe we can assume that the author who mentioned "precise estimates" may have meant "estimates as precise as our usual estimates"?

--Gooser

 

[sbudzynski]

I am guessing the author is discussing the increased precision of estimates.

Either way it depends on what the heck the author is talking about!

Atleast we can all agree on that?? (haha)

----------

Steve Budzynski


"So, pass another round around for the kids. Who have nothing left to lose and for those souls old and sold out by the soles of my shoes"

 

[Gooser]

Yes. If he would have taken a couple of minutes to explain his'self, he'd've saved us hours of 'splaining ourselves.

--Gooser

 

[CajunCenturion]

And only if the author uses the terms properly, or perhaps, more accurately, if the author used the terms the same way we would use them.

As we can see in this thread, and many, many other threads, it's common for people to use terms however they want to use them, which on the one hand, directly leads to ambiguity and confusion, while at the same time, is how language evolves.

--------------
Good Luck
To get the most from your Tek-Tips experience, please read FAQ181-2886
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[SilentAiche]

IMVHO:

"Precise Estimate" IS, technically, an oxymoron.

A value is EITHER precise OR an estimate.

HOWEVER, you can have (for lack of a better term) a SCIENTIFIC Estimate. Sometimes all we have to work with are variables, and using them correctly and accuarately can result in the best possible estimate. This value might be "precisely calculated," but it cannot be "precise." If the estimate matches the actual value, then most likely your variables weren't very "varied."

Aside: 1.0 = 1.00000000 every time if the 1.0 was not a rounded value. IMHO.

Tim



[blue]_______________________________________________________
"Although many figures are strange, prime numbers are truly odd."[/blue]

 

[fumei]

Wow, I never thought this would go on this long...but mind you, my estimate of the duration was imprecise.

I think CC really has nailed it here.

1. It depends on what the author meant, not truly what was said.

2. The use of words, especially in technical areas, are used as meaning something contrary to its actual meaning. Even here, how often have some of us asked for an explicit correction, or an expansion of what a poster states. They can says something, but means something else.

This is where we differ, estimation (to me) includes how the value was derived.

I am going to side with CC on this. Particularly as - in the example given - there is an assumption that the derivative process is identical. that is, unless somehow, in their journey in altitdue they figured out an new way of deriving altitude from measuring air pressure.

As this is unlikely, then the way the value was derived would be identical in all estimates. The values obtained are obtained with the same process. Therefore the precision of the estimates are the same, but the results (or accuracy of the estimates) will vary.

Again, using the example. DayA - using the same method - gives an altitude of 16,800 feet. DayB - using the same method, and at the same location - gives an altitude of 16,500. In both cases, a reading is taken of the air pressure. In both cases, that reading is extrapolated into an altitude. The altitude is derived. The value, the process of getting that value, the "how the values is derived" is exactly the same. But different results (or estimates).

One could state, and the author does NOT (but I think that is what he meant), that the result on a windy day are less accurate. The precision of the estimate (windy, or not) is the same.

Gerry
My paintings and sculpture

 

[SkipVought]

This thread has had a duration of...

exactly, approximately... ;-)

152 hours 36 minutes


Skip,

_[red][/red]

 

[fumei]

And it may be time to kill it.

Gerry
My paintings and sculpture

 

[Gooser]

So, Gerry, what's the name of the book?

--Gooser