I just saw this on a map for research. Note that Parcel 1 is 0.5040497 Ac and Parcel 2 is 0.4417284 Ac. I really hope they set the pipes in the right spot, otherwise their area calcs could be wrong!
If I'm not mistaken, that last decimal place represents 10 millionths of an acre.
I find this especially impressive considering this is a map from 1973.
Actually that's just high precision and may not be accurate at all.
Many Years Ago
I took a graduate level class in Environmental Engineering. One assignment had us doing a massive energy analysis of a house of a specific design and layout in a certain location for one week's time in a certain month. Many assumptions and magic numbers were involved to arrive at a final number of millions of BTU's involved to cool said house to a specified temperature at all times during that week.
One brilliant student had a superduper handheld calculator at a time when very, very few had such things available. His answer was something like 87654321.12345678 BTU's. Upon seeing this student's answer, the professor tore the student's paper in half and stomped on it for a minute or two in front of the entire class. We spent the rest of the hour being lectured on significant digits when applying assumptions and magic numbers to a real-world problem. That was about 37 years ago. I remember it like it was yesterday.
Who knows, maybe when I do the resurvey it will be accurate and precise? ....but yes, I should've wrote precise instead of accurate....
Great Story Holy
I had a prof at UNH in 1979 who said, "In engineering, PI = 3".
Many Years Ago
>Upon seeing this student's answer, the professor tore the student's paper in half and stomped on it for a minute or two in front of the entire class.
That Professor had greater issues than significant digits.
mathematical genius! note the bearing, distances, and deltas!:-X
Where was this piece of art filed?
PS: never mind, Marin County...
now, who was the artist?
[sarcasm]Why waste so many places after the decimal when the square feet would have been less digits.[/sarcasm]
:-S
> mathematical genius! note the bearing, distances, and deltas!:-X
> Where was this piece of art filed?
>
> PS: never mind, Marin County...
> now, who was the artist?
I wondered where you came up with Marin, then I saw the San Rafael City limit label in the upper right hand corner.
Maybe but ...
> >Upon seeing this student's answer, the professor tore the student's paper in half and stomped on it for a minute or two in front of the entire class.
>
> That Professor had greater issues than significant digits.
Maybe but his theatrics were effective in making Mr. Cow remember his point.