my favourite example of “precision” is a weight scale that reads to 3 decimal places, but is way off actual weight.
As my dad would say: “precision without accuracy”.
Brilliant analogy!
RE: “my favourite example of “precision” is a weight scale that reads to 3 decimal places, but is way off actual weight.
As my dad would say: “precision without accuracy”.
I came across something similar. A colleague asked me which would be more accurate, a pH strip or a pH meter. I said a pH meter.
Thing is, pH strips are manufactured to do what they do while a pH meter depends on the quality of its calibration, which in the hands of the unskilled, can be way off.
He said something about the scientific calculators just coming on to the market as giving a false belief in providing greater results or being “inaccurate to eight decimal places.”