NUMERICAL APPROXIMATION

Group Members Registration #

Ganesh Gupta 07/0937/1696

Richard Menzies 07/0937/1481
Haripaul Seepersaud 08/0937/1180
Ignatius Tello 06/0937/4350
Arif Hamid 07/0937/1569
 GENERAL OVERVIEW
Introduction
Mistakes
Errors
Absolute Errors
Relative Errors
Error Propagation
Conclusion
References
INTRODUCTION
 MISTAKES
A mistake occurs when the experimenter unintentionally
does something wrong.  This commonly occurs by
overlooking details in reading or recording data.
Examples would be when an apparatus is set up
incorrectly, when an instrument is misread or when
calculation is done carelessly. Mistakes are not a source of
experimental error; rather, they are “experimenter's” error.
Common mistakes in calculation
and reading data includes:
 transposition of digits e.g. reading 6238 as 6328

 misreading of repeated digits e.g. reading 62238 as 62338

 misreading of tables e.g. referring to a wrong line or a wrong

column
 incorrectly positioning a decimal point e.g. 62.34 instead of

6.234
 overlooking signs, especially near sign changes
 TIPS TO HELP AVOID MISTAKES
 Double check calculations

 Ensure signs are clearly written

 Have an awareness of common mistakes

 ERRORS
There are three types of error:
Round-off error
Truncation error
Number representation error
 Round-off error
Round-off errors arise because it is impossible to
represent all real numbers exactly on a finite-state
machine (which is what all practical digital computers
are). These numbers can be reduced by ignoring the
unwanted numbers. An example is pi which is equal to
3.14159 corrected to four decimal places is 3.1415.
 Round-0ff error
 A more common and better way is by rounding, which
is basically adding 5 to the first unwanted digit and
then chopping. When pi which is 3.1416 is rounded off;
the representation 3.1416 is correct to five significant
digits/figures.
 Truncation error
Truncation errors are committed when an iterative
method is terminated and the approximate solution
differs from the exact solution.
For instance, in the iteration in the sidebar to compute
the solution of 3x3 + 4 = 28, after 10 or so iterations, we
conclude that the root is roughly 1.99. We therefore
have a truncation error of 0.01.
 Ways to reduce Round-off error
&Truncation error
 Round-off error can be reduced by working to more
significant digits while truncation errors can be
reduced by retaining more steps in the iteration;
which of course, involves more work.
 Number Representation Errors
Number representation errors are errors that occur
when numbers with no exact value are approximated.
For example, numbers with infinite decimal places.
 Number Representation Errors
 Numerical calculations usually involve numbers that
cannot be represented exactly by a finite number of
digits. For instance, the arithmetical operation of
division often gives a number which does not
terminate; the decimal (base 10) representation of 2/3
is one example. Even a number such as 0.1 which
terminates in decimal form would not terminate if
expressed in binary form.
 Number Representation Errors
There are two ways in which these problems can be
dealt with.

1. By use of approximation on the basis of the number

of significant figures(s).
2. By the use of floating point notation or scientific
notation.
 Number Representation Errors
If the numbers which are to be represented are very
large or small, it will be better to write them in
scientific notation
For example, the speed of light which is 2.99792 x 10^8
m/s.
 Number Representation Errors
As shown, the significant digits is separated from the
power of ten which is the exponent; the form in which
the exponent is chosen so that the magnitude of the
significant digits is less than 10, but not less than 1, is
referred to as scientific notation.