precision

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(prĭ-sĭzh'ən) pronunciation
n.
  1. The state or quality of being precise; exactness.
    1. The ability of a measurement to be consistently reproduced.
    2. The number of significant digits to which a value has been reliably measured.
adj.
  1. Used or intended for accurate or exact measurement: a precision tool.
  2. Made so as to vary minimally from a set standard: precision components.
  3. Of or characterized by accurate action: precision bombing.

[Latin praecīsiō, praecīsiōn-, a cutting off, from praecīsus, past participle of praecīdere, to cut off. See precise.]


The number of digits used to express the fractional part of a number. The more digits, the more precision. See single precision and double precision. See also accuracy.

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n

Definition: accuracy
Antonyms: imprecision, inaccuracy, inexactness


[Ge]

In archaeological science, precision is the degree to which random errors effect a set of measurements; high precision means that the overall random error is small and that replicated measurements will provide closely similar results. A random error in this sense is one which, when averaged, tends to zero as the number of measurements averaged is increased. High precision does not, therefore, mean that the measurements will necessarily be close to the true value; systematic errors may give low accuracy. In other words, precise results are not ecessarily accurate results and vice versa. compare accuracy.

The number of significant figures to which data or readings are taken. The higher the number of significant figures, the greater the precision. Compare accuracy.

  1. a measure of the sharpness (or certainty) of a measurement — a precise measurement may nevertheless be inaccurate (e.g. if there are unrecognized errors in the measurement).
  2. or selectivity (in informatics) the proportion of the predictions made by an algorithm that are correct (i.e. discrimination of true matches from false): true positives/(true positives + false positives).

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The quality of being sharply defined by virtue of exact detail, an important criteria of a diagnostic test. A precise test is free from random error. Precision is a requirement of accuracy.

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Precision (computer science)

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In computer science, precision of a numerical quantity is a measure of the detail in which the quantity is expressed. This is usually measured in bits, but sometimes in decimal digits. It is related to precision in mathematics, which describes the number of digits that are used to express a value.

Rounding error

Precision is often the source of rounding errors in computation. The number of bits used to store a number will often cause some loss of accuracy. An example would be to store sin(0.1) in IEEE single precision floating point standard. The error is then often magnified as subsequent computations are made to the data (it can also be reduced).

See also


Translations:

Precision

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - præcision
adj. - præcisions-

Nederlands (Dutch)
precisie, nauwkeurigheid

Français (French)
n. - précision
adj. - de précision

Deutsch (German)
n. - Genauigkeit
adj. - Präzisions...

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - ακρίβεια, ακριβολογία

Italiano (Italian)
precisione

Português (Portuguese)
n. - precisão (f)

Русский (Russian)
точность

Español (Spanish)
n. - precisión, exactitud
adj. - de precisión

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - precision, noggrannhet

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
精密, 精确度, 精确, 精确的, 精密的

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 精密, 精確度, 精確
adj. - 精確的, 精密的

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 정확, 정밀
adj. - 정밀한

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 正確, 精度
adj. - 精密な, 正確に行なう

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) دقه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮דיוק, דרגת הדיוק‬
adj. - ‮של דיוק‬


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