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intergation of perl modules

Re: intergation of perl modules

by Zak Zarychta -
Number of replies: 0
specifically the module Math::SigFig in which there are functions that compute sums, differences, products and ratios to an appropriate amount of significant figures dependent on the argument.

eg
0.1 + 2.22 = 2.3
1.54 / 1.5 = 1.0

The idea was to use these functions as a fudge then converting the output to a string in WeBWorK so that an exact comparison could be made

The background context are numerical questions and data processing in physics where it is not appropriate to include superfluous digits in a calculation.

For example, consider the area of a coin,
When asked to compute this many students keep all the precision of \pi from their calculator in their answer. This gives an answer to ~9 significant figures, suggesting that they measured the diameter to a similar precision, approximately an atomic width!?

Thanks for your reply and help with this,
Regards,
Zak