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A comment on Show HN: We built the simplest Online Unit Converter for everyday use. Parent comment

Re:Show HN: We built the simplest Online Unit Converter for ... by kstrauser on Tuesday November 12, 2024 @12:44PM (#42117772)
I can't think of an example of a real-life measurement with 28 decimal digits of precision, and if there is, I bet they have a custom converter.

Please don't be the calculator that ignores significant digits and encourages people to write nonsense things like "an adult blue whale can be up to 29.9 meters (1177.16535 inches) long".

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Show HN: We built the simplest Online Unit Converter for ... by itishappy on Tuesday November 12, 2024 @01:02PM (#42117949)
> I can't think of an example of a real-life measurement with 28 decimal digits of precision...

Pretty sure there aint one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_physical_constants

https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/497087/what-is-t...

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Re:Show HN: We built the simplest Online Unit Converter for ... by kstrauser on Tuesday November 12, 2024 @01:14PM (#42118073)
Agreed. And here's NASA explaining why they only bother with 15 digits of PI: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/news/how-many-decimals-of-pi-do...

> Think about that. We have a circle more than 94 billion miles (more than 150 billion kilometers) around, and our calculation of that distance would be off by no more than the width of your little finger.

Anyone who needs more precision than that is almost certainly sitting next to a computer with bespoke software running on it.

[ Parent | on HN ]