Talk:place of decimals

Deletion discussion

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place of decimals

Next up in the parade of sums‐of‐parts. --Æ&Œ (talk) 14:10, 2 December 2012 (UTC)

Do people say this? DCDuring TALK 16:51, 2 December 2012 (UTC)

If they once did, this might be entry-worthy. DCDuring TALK 16:53, 2 December 2012 (UTC)

Keep. But RFV. --WikiTiki89 19:05, 2 December 2012 (UTC)

It is much, much more common in the plural (See Google book search). But the definition is just plain wrong. It means the number of decimal places used in a particular expression. i.e. (deprecated template usage) pi is 3.1 to 2 places of decimals, but 3.1415926 to 8 places of decimals. 22:23, 2 December 2012 (UTC)

In that case, the definition is not wrong (because decimal places are used that way too), but just not specific enough. I still think it should be RFV'd first. --WikiTiki89 06:26, 3 December 2012 (UTC)

Yes - in my usage: π το the fourth decimal place = 3.1416 , is synonymous with π το four decimal places = 3.1416, which is synonymous with π το four places of decimals = 3.1416 — Saltmarsh^{απάντηση} 06:41, 3 December 2012 (UTC)

That is common usage. See:

• 1980, Michael H. Stone, The Borderline Syndromes: Constitution, Personality, and Adaptation, page 101:

  Find the positive root of the equation e^x – 3x = 0, correct to 3 places of decimals.

• 1995, G. N. Watson, A Treatise on the Theory of Bessel Functions, page 655:

  In consequence of the need of Tables of J_n (x) with fairly large values of n and x for Astronomical purposes, Hansen constructed a Table of J₀ (x) and J_i (x) to six places of decimals with a range from x = 0 to x = 10.0 with interval 0.1.

• 2005, Veerarajan & Ramachandran, Numerical Methods: With Programs In C, page 3-54:

  Use Newton Raphson method to find the values of (i) VT2 and (ii) — , correct to four places of decimals.

• 2006, Bansi Lal, Topics in Integral Calculus, page 272:

  In the application of Simpson's rule, when the number of places of decimals to which the answer is required, is not mentioned, it is usual to calculate the answer correct to three places of decimals.

bd2412 T 15:17, 2 December 2013 (UTC)

• How would we use the label template {{context}} to convey that this term is now used almost entirely in relatively technical works in the context of computation (not "pure" mathematics, BTW)? The current label "arithmetic" is, at best, a topical categorization. Ideally, we would get appropriate categorization, but we should at least get a good presentation. If necessary, we could bypass {{context}}. DCDuring TALK 16:15, 2 December 2013 (UTC)
  • I provided references to technical works, but I believe it can be found in some slightly more mundane works. For example:
  • 2001, Keith Pledger, Edexcel GCSE Mathematics, page 103:

    To round a decimal correct to one place of decimals (1 d.p.) you look at the second place of decimals.

  • 1841, Charles Hutton, ‎Thomas Stephens Davies, A Course of Mathematics in Two Volumes, Composed for the Use of the Royal Military Academy, page 56:

    It will always be better to calculate one place of decimals more than are required by the question.

  • Of course, the term is not to be found in works of more general character than that, but "mathematics" alone should do. bd2412 T 19:09, 3 December 2013 (UTC)

No consensus to delete. Remaining issues are matters for discussion on the entry's talk page. bd2412 T 16:10, 4 December 2013 (UTC)