error (redirected from gaffe)

error, in law: see appeal.

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error

In applied mathematics, the difference between a value and an estimate of that value. In statistics, a common example is the difference between the mean age of a given group of people (see mean, median, and mode) and that of a sample drawn from the group. In numerical analysis, an example of round-off error is the difference between the true value of pi and commonly substituted expressions like ²²⁄₇ and shorter versions like 3.14159. Truncation error results from using only the first few terms of an infinite series. Relative error is the ratio of the size of an error to the size of the quantity measured, and percentage error is relative error expressed as a percent.

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error [′er·ər]

(computer science)

An incorrect result arising from approximations used in numerical methods, rather than from a human mistake or computer malfunction.

(science and technology)

Any discrepancy between a computed, observed, or measured quantity and the true, specified, or theoretically correct value of that quantity.

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Error

Breeches Bible, the

the Geneva Bible, so dubbed because it stated that Adam and Eve made themselves breeches. [Br. Hist.: Brewer Dictionary, 101]

Cortez

alluded to in a poem by Keats, mistaken for Balboa, as discoverer of Pacific Ocean. [Br. Poetry: “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer”]

Wicked Bible, the

misprinted a commandment as “Thou shalt commit adultery.” [Br. Hist.: Brewer Dictionary, 102]

seacoast of Bohemia

Shakespearean setting in a land with no seacoast. [Br. Drama: Shakespeare The Winter’s Tale, III,iii]

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1.		error - A discrepancy between a computed, observed, or measured value or condition and the true, specified, or theoretically correct value or condition.
2.	(programming)	error - A mental mistake made by a programmer that may result in a program fault.
3.		error - (verb) What a program does when it stops as result of a programming error.