Dan Waters
df.waters at outlook.com
Wed May 28 13:51:23 CDT 2014
Sometimes scientists really should not use spreadsheets. It depends on how many significant figures they are working with. My physics professor told me once, "We've figured it out to 50 decimal places so we're pretty sure!" (Physicists at the time were trying to confirm that something was the square of something else, and they had confirmed that the equation worked with exponent 2 followed by 50 zeroes.) So, the real caution is to know how many significant figures you need to work with, and know what Excel's limits are (I've read that it's 15). In a business, the standard is to work with 4 decimal places. That's good enough for money! Dan -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Gary Kjos Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2014 9:14 PM To: Off Topic Cc: Access Developers discussion and problem solving Subject: Re: [AccessD] [dba-OT] Why You Shouldn't Use Spreadsheets For Important Work And so WHY exactly shouldn't we trust them? I never got that. Because shit is in there that could be fucked up? Just like ANY freaking program. What a crock. There are ways of testing spreadsheets. No doubt spreadsheets get misused. But to say all spreadsheets are evil is not right at all either. Here's a one word tip. Crossfoot. GK GK On Tue, May 27, 2014 at 8:50 PM, <aclawhon at hiwaay.net> wrote: > I haven't read this (yet), but it looks like an economics professor > has written a book advancing a hypothesis that all us wage slaves are > doomed to misery and poverty while the folks who own and control > capital will eventually own and control everything. (I suppose this > is the long overdue update of "Das Capital" by Karl Marx.) > > The only problem with this professor's theory is that he relied on > erroneous error-plagued spreadsheet data to support his "facts" and > conclusions. > > http://science.slashdot.org/story/14/05/27/220202/why-you- > shouldnt-use-spreadsheets-for-important-work > > Susan, maybe you can insert a chapter (or a few pages) into your > upcoming Excel book warning people not to get too infatuated with > spreadsheets. (I wonder why articles like this aren't more prevalent > about the misuse and/or misinterpretation of data generated from > databases?) > > Positive Alan of Huntsville > > > -- Gary Kjos garykjos at gmail.com -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com