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A Cautionary Example Relating to the Interpretation of Numerical Results

History and Overview 2023-11-20 v2

Abstract

In this paper we propose a very specific educational challenge that teachers can use to motivate ambitious and enthusiastic mathematics students who have mastered basic trigonometry and trig functions. The objective is to lead students to a result that will hopefully surprise and entertain and - more importantly - provide a lesson about when and when not to make inferences relating to "numerical error" when using mathematical software and calculators.

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Cite

@article{arxiv.2112.10873,
  title  = {A Cautionary Example Relating to the Interpretation of Numerical Results},
  author = {Jeffrey Uhlmann},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2112.10873},
  year   = {2023}
}

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