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Lecture 2: Errors 1 Decimal Machine Numbers

The document discusses errors in decimal machine numbers and floating-point arithmetic. It defines k-digit decimal machine numbers and how k-digit chopping and rounding are used to determine the floating-point form of a number. Absolute and relative errors are defined, as well as the concept of significant digits. Examples show how to calculate errors and determine the number of significant digits for approximations. The document also discusses how finite-digit arithmetic operations like addition and multiplication are performed and can introduce errors. Ways to reduce errors like avoiding subtraction of nearly equal numbers are presented.

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45 views2 pages

Lecture 2: Errors 1 Decimal Machine Numbers

The document discusses errors in decimal machine numbers and floating-point arithmetic. It defines k-digit decimal machine numbers and how k-digit chopping and rounding are used to determine the floating-point form of a number. Absolute and relative errors are defined, as well as the concept of significant digits. Examples show how to calculate errors and determine the number of significant digits for approximations. The document also discusses how finite-digit arithmetic operations like addition and multiplication are performed and can introduce errors. Ways to reduce errors like avoiding subtraction of nearly equal numbers are presented.

Uploaded by

erf
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Lecture 2: Errors

Decimal Machine Numbers

Definition 1. The machine numbers represented in the normalized decimal floating-point form
0.d1 d2 . . . dk 10n ,

1 d1 9,

0 di 9 for i = 2, . . . , k,

are called k-digit decimal machine numbers. Consider a number of the normalized decimal form
y = s(0.d1 d2 . . . dk dk+1 . . .) 10n

d1 6= 0.

The floating-point form of y, denoted by f l(y), can be obtained by


1. k-digit chopping: f lc (y) = s(0.d1 d2 . . . dk ) 10n ;
2. k-digit rounding: f lr (y) = s(0.1 2 . . . k ) 10n . If dk+1 5, we round up by adding 1 to dk .
If dk+1 < 5, we round down by chopping off all but the first k digits.
Example 1. Determine the 5-digit chopping and rounding values of = 3.14159265 . . ..
Solution.
f lc () = 0.31415 101 = 3.1415,

f lr () = 0.31416 101 = 3.1416.

Absolute and relative errors

Definition 2. Let p be an approximation to p R. The absolute error is ea (p, p ) = |p p |, and


|
the relative error is er (p, p ) = |pp
provided that p 6= 0.
|p|
Remark: In practice, if p is not known and |p p | is known, we use er (p, p )

|pp |
|p | .

Definition 3. Let a (p, p ) > 0 such that |ea (p, p )| a (p, p ) is the (upper) bound for the absolute
error. We write p = p e for |e| a (p, p ) or simply p = p a (p, p ). Likewise, r (p, p ) > 0
such that |er (p, p )| r (p, p ) is the (upper) bound for the relative error, written as p = p (1 ) for
|| r (p, p ) or simply p = p (1 r (p, p )).
Remark: To simplify the notation without confusion of the context, we simply write a , r , ea , er .
Definition 4. The number p is said to approximate p to t significant digits (or figure) if t is the
largest nonnegative integer for which er (p, p ) 5 10t .
Remark: this definition is consistent with the number of decimal digits to be accurate.
Example 2. Let p = 0.12345 . . . and p = 0.123. Since er (p, p ) =
significant digits.

0.45...103
0.12345...

5 103 , p has three

Definition 5. (Error bound)


1. Bound of absolute error |ea (p, p )| a (p, p ), or p = p + e where |e| a (p, p ), or p = p + a .
2. Bound of relative error |er (p, p )| r (p, p ), or p = p (1 + ) where || r (p, p ), or p =
p (1 + r ).
1

Example 3. Find an error bound for k-digit chopping.


Solution. Let y = (0.d1 d2 . . . dk dk+1 . . .) 10n be normalized decimal representation. Then
f lc (y) = (0.d1 d2 . . . dk ) 10n .
Therefore



y f lc (y) (0.dk+1 . . .) 10nk
=

er =

y
(0.d1 . . .) 10n

If dk+1 < 5, then

0.5
10k = 5 10k
0.1
which implies that k-digit chopping will keep k significant digits. If dk+1 5, then
er

er

1
10k = 10k+1 < 5 10k+1
0.1

which implies that k-digit chopping will keep k 1 significant digits.


Remark: Similarly, we have er (y, f lr (y)) 0.5 10k+1 which implies that the k-digit rounding
keeps k significant digits.

Finite-digit arithmetic

Let , , and
represent machine addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
xy = f l(f l(x)+f l(y)) x y = f l(f l(x)f l(y)) xy = f l(f l(x)f l(y)) x
y = f l(f l(x)f l(y)).
Example 4. Let x =

2
3

and y = 13 , find 3-digit chopping and rounding values of x y.

Solution. 3-digit chopping:


2
1
x y = f lc (f lc ( ) + f lc ( )) = f lc (0.666 + 0.333) = f lc (0.999) = 0.999.
3
3
In this case, ea = 0.100 102 and er = 0.100 102 .
3-digit rounding:
x y = f lr (0.667 + 0.333) = f lr (1.000) = 1.00 = 0.100 101 .
But ea = er = 0.

Ways to reduce errors

I. Avoid subtraction of 2 nearly equal numbers. Reason: it causes cancelation of significant


digits. Given 2 nearly equal numbers x > y of k-digit representation:
f l(x) = 0.d1 d2 . . . dp p+1 . . . k 10n ,

f l(y) = 0.d1 d2 . . . dp p+1 . . . k 10n .

Then
f l(f l(x) f l(y)) = 0.p+1 p+2 . . . k 10np = (0.p+1 . . . k 0.p+1 . . . k ) 10np
x y has at most k p significant digits. In most machines, x y will be assigned k-significant digits
with last p digits either 0 or randomly assigned.
2

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