Erik Max Francis wrote:
> Mel wrote:
>> Erik Max Francis wrote:
>>
>>> Chris Angelico wrote:
>>>> On Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 12:56 PM, Steven D'Aprano
>>>> <steve+comp.lang.pyt...@pearwood.info> wrote:
>>>>> Zero sig figure: 0
>>> That's not really zero significant figures; without further
>>> qualification, it's one.
>>>
>>>> Is 0.0 one sig fig or two?
>>> Two.
>>>
>>>> (Just vaguely curious. Also curious as to
>>>> whether a zero sig figures value is ever useful.)
>>> Yes. They're order of magnitude estimates. 1 x 10^6 has one
>>> significant figure. 10^6 has zero.
>>
>> By convention, nobody ever talks about 1 x 9.97^6 .
>
> Not sure what the relevance is, since nobody had mentioned any such thing.
>
> If it was intended as a gag, I don't catch the reference.
I get giddy once in a while.. push things to limits. It doesn't really mean
anything. The point was that it's only the 2 in a number like 2e6 that is
taken to have error bars. The 6 is always an absolute number. As is the 10
in 2*10**6. The thought also crossed my mind of a kind of continued
fraction in reverse -- 2e1.3e.7 . I managed to keep quiet about that one.
Mel.
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