Re:Data scientists need to learn about significant digits
by cowthulhu on Monday December 25, 2023 @06:10PM
(#38767219)
Working in finance, significant digits are (of course) super important. You always want to assume a stakeholder doesn’t have a perfect understanding of the data definition, so provide less precision (even if you know the actual value to a cent) to avoid the stakeholder misusing the data given a slightly flawed understanding of some obscure edge case.
If the number stays at 32.56m for a period of time, you want them to consider it sideways movement rather than start worrying about the fact that it did technically go up by a few hundred dollars.
If the number stays at 32.56m for a period of time, you want them to consider it sideways movement rather than start worrying about the fact that it did technically go up by a few hundred dollars.