Error Tolerance: It's All Relative

Error Tolerance: It's All Relative
magnitude-memes, precision-memes, astrophysics-memes, measurement-memes, science-memes | ScienceHumor.io

For astrophysicists, a factor of 10 is just a rounding error. These cosmic calculators are out here measuring distances in light-years and masses in solar units, so what's a little zero between colleagues? Meanwhile, chemists are having panic attacks when their measurements are off by 0.001%. The beauty of science is that precision is entirely contextual - when you're dealing with black holes and galaxy clusters, being within the right power of 10 is practically surgical precision. But try telling that to your analytical chemistry professor who just failed your titration because you were off by a single drop.

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