16 Avoiding interval arithmetic pitfalls
16.1 Useless error bounds
Interval arithmetic seems like a great idea, until you actually try to use it to solve a problem. Several examples of interval arithmetic in Part 1 wound up with an answer bound of “between – ∞ and ∞,” a correct but completely useless result. The information obtained is = 0. Unums, ubounds, and uboxes also deal with intervals, suggesting that whatever plagues interval arithmetic and has prevented its widespread adoption will also affect unum arithmetic and send would-be unum users scurrying back to the familiar turf of unknown rounding and sampling errors that produce exact-looking results.
Most of Part 2 is about why uboxes need not suffer the drawbacks of interval arithmetic. ...
Get The End of Error now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
