, 1 min read
Computer scientists need to learn about significant digits
I probably spend too much time reviewing research papers. It makes me cranky.
Nevertheless, one thing that has become absolutely clear to me is that computer scientists do not know about significant digits.
When you write that the test took 304.03 s, you are telling me that the 0.03 s is somehow significant (otherwise, why tell me about it?). Yet it is almost certainly insignificant.
In computer science, you should almost never use more than two significant digits. So 304.03 s is indistinguishable from 300 s. And 33.14 MB is the same thing as 33 MB.
Why does it matter?
- Cutting down numbers to their significant digits simplifies the exposition. It is simpler to say that it took 300 s than to say that it took 304.03 s.
- Numbers expressed without significant digits often lie. Running your program does not take 304.03 s. Maybe it did this one time, but if you run it again, you will get a different number.
Please learn to express your experimental results using as few digits as you can.