Polytechnic University of the Philippines - Maragondon Branch

Numerical Analysis w/Computer Application

Research Work # 3

Submitted by:

Mark Kenneth M. Apuyan

2014 - 00238 - M

ECE-IV

ENGR. JOMER V. CATIPON

Professor

January 15, 2017

TYPES OF ERROR

ABSOLUTE ERROR

Absolute Error is the magnitude of the difference between the true value x and the
approximate value xa, Therefore absolute error=[x-xa] The error between two values is defined as

where x denotes the exact value and xa denotes the approximation.

RELATIVE ERROR

The relative error of is the absolute error relative to the exact value. Look at it this way:
if your measurement has an error of ± 1 inch, this seems to be a huge error when you try to measure
something which is 3 in. long. However, when measuring distances on the order of miles, this error
is mostly negligible. The definition of the relative error is

In a numerical computation, error may arise because of the following reasons:

 Truncation error

 Roundoff error

Truncation error refers to the error in a method, which occurs because some series (finite or infinite)
is truncated to a fewer number of terms. Such errors are essentially algorithmic errors and we can
predict the extent of the error that will occur in the method.

Roundoff error occurs because of the computing device's inability to deal with certain numbers. Such
numbers need to be rounded off to some near approximation which is dependent on the word size
used to represent numbers of the device.

RULES IN SIGNIFICANT DIGITS

There are three rules on determining how many significant figures are in a number:

1. Non-zero digits are always significant.

2. Any zeros between two significant digits are significant.

3. A final zero or trailing zeros in the decimal portion ONLY are significant.

Focus on these rules and learn them well. They will be used extensively throughout the remainder of
this course. You would be well advised to do as many problems as needed to nail the concept of
significant figures down tight and then do some more, just to be sure.

Please remember that, in science, all numbers are based upon measurements (except for a very few
that are defined). Since all measurements are uncertain, we must only use those numbers that are
meaningful. A common ruler cannot measure something to be 22.4072643 cm long. Not all of the
digits have meaning (significance) and, therefore, should not be written down. In science, only the
numbers that have significance (derived from measurement) are written.

Rule 1: Non-zero digits are always significant.

Hopefully, this rule seems rather obvious. If you measure something and the device you use (ruler,
thermometer, triple-beam balance, etc.) returns a number to you, then you have made a
measurement decision and that ACT of measuring gives significance to that particular numeral (or
digit) in the overall value you obtain.

Hence a number like 26.38 would have four significant figures and 7.94 would have three. The
problem comes with numbers like 0.00980 or 28.09.

Rule 2: Any zeros between two significant digits are significant.

Suppose you had a number like 406. By the first rule, the 4 and the 6 are significant. However, to
make a measurement decision on the 4 (in the hundred's place) and the 6 (in the unit's place), you
HAD to have made a decision on the ten's place. The measurement scale for this number would
have hundreds and tens marked with an estimation made in the unit's place. Like this:

Rule 3: A final zero or trailing zeros in the decimal portion ONLY are significant.

This rule causes the most difficulty with students. Here are two examples of this rule with the zeros
this rule affects in boldface:

0.00500

0.03040

Here are two more examples where the significant zeros are in boldface:

2.30 x 10¯5

4.500 x 1012
RULES IN ROUNDING OFF

Rule 1: Determine what your rounding digit is and look at the digit to the right of it (highlighted digit).If
the highlighted digit is 1, 2, 3, 4 simply drop all digits to the right of rounding digit.
Example:
3.423 may be rounded off to 3.42 when rounded off to the nearest hundredths place.
3.423 may be rounded off to 3.4 when rounded off to the nearest tenths place
3.423 may be rounded off to 3 when rounded off to the nearest units place.

Rule 2: Determine what your rounding digit is and look at the digit to the right of it (highlighted digit).If
the highlighted digit is 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 add one to the rounding digit and drop all digits to the right of
rounding digit.
Example:
2.786 may be rounded off to 2.79 when rounded off to the nearest hundredths place.
2.786 may be rounded off to 2.8 when rounded off to the nearest tenths place.
2.786 may be rounded off to 3 when rounded off to the nearest units place.
2.856 may be rounded off to 2.9 when rounded off to the nearest tenths place.

Exception to Rule 2: When the first digit dropped is 5 and there are no digits following or the digits
following are zeros, make the preceding digit even (i.e., round off to the nearest even digit).
Example:
2.315 and 2.325 are both 2.32 when rounded off to the nearest hundredths place.

Examples and tips regarding the EGEE 102 Home Activities:

a. Avoid rounding off small whole numbers

Example

• Preferably do not round 34 to 30, or 12 to 10 because the margin of error is high for small whole
numbers.

b. While rounding small numbers involving decimals don’t round off before the nearest hundredths
place.

Example

• 45.67844 should be rounded off preferably to 45.68 or 45.678 or 45.6784 and not to 45.7 or 46 to
avoid errors.

• This tip need not be used for numbers >100 because the error involved is small.

c. 2.984 may be rounded off to 3 if the rounding is done either to the nearest units or tenths.
FLOATING POINT REPRESENTATION

In computing, floating-point arithmetic is arithmetic using formulaic representation of real

numbers as an approximation so as to support a trade-off between range and precision. For this
reason, floating-point computation is often found in systems which include very small and very large
real numbers, which require fast processing times. A number is, in general, represented
approximately to a fixed number of significant digits (the significand) and scaled using
an exponent in some fixed base; the base for the scaling is normally two, ten, or sixteen. A number
that can be represented exactly is of the following form:

where significand is an integer (i.e., in Z), base is an integer greater than or equal to two, and
exponent is also an integer. For example:

The term floating point refers to the fact that a number's radix point (decimal point, or, more
commonly in computers, binary point) can "float"; that is, it can be placed anywhere relative to
the significant digits of the number. This position is indicated as the exponent component, and thus
the floating-point representation can be thought of as a kind of scientific notation.

A floating-point system can be used to represent, with a fixed number of digits, numbers of
different orders of magnitude: e.g. the distance between galaxies or thediameter of an atomic
nucleus can be expressed with the same unit of length. The result of this dynamic range is that the
numbers that can be represented are not uniformly spaced; the difference between two consecutive
representable numbers grows with the chosen scale.[1]

Over the years, a variety of floating-point representations have been used in computers. However,
since the 1990s, the most commonly encountered representation is that defined by the IEEE
754 Standard.

The speed of floating-point operations, commonly measured in terms of FLOPS, is an important

characteristic of a computer system, especially for applications that involve intensive mathematical
calculations.

A floating-point unit (FPU, colloquially a math coprocessor) is a part of a computer system specially
designed to carry out operations on floating-point numbers.