> there is a level of precision below which there is no meaning and that level is fairly high, at least around here. There is much randomness.
Faced with so much randomness, one might be promoted to strive for a little more precision, to seek the underlying patterns in what otherwise appears "random".
Of course, there are limits, and "precision" is not to be confused with "accuracy". I was presented with a very pretty chart from a bottom-board hive scale, and I was asked what I thought of it. I replied that I thought that the device needed temperature compensation, or needed to use 24-hr averages, as the sine-wave was clear in the data, matching the day/night cycle of cooling off and heating up.
"No", I was told in solemn tomes - "that was NOT error". I was told that the bees gathered nectar during the day, and evaporated water out of the nectar at night, and that the sine wave was an accurate representation of actual weight. So, I suggested that the beekeeper take the scale out from under the hive, and to put a few bricks on the scale, and leave them for a few days. The varying "weight" of the bricks also showed a sine wave, so despite 3 digits to the right of the decimal, the scale lacked any temperature compensation. Clearly, bricks do not get heavier during the day, and lighter at night.
The names have been removed to protect the guilty and the gullible.
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