A PROJECT REPORT

ON

“ERRORS AND APPROXIMATION”

SUBMITTED IN COMPLETE FULFILLMENT OF THE

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE

MID-TERM INNOVATIVE PROJECT

FOR
FIRST SEMESTER IN

[APPLIED MATHEMATICS]

Submitted by:
AKSHIT SAINI (2K20/A12/59)
AMAN KAUSHIK (2K20/A12/61)

Under the supervision

of
MRS. TRASHA GUPTA

DELHI TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

(FORMERLY Delhi College of Engineering)
Department of Applied Mathematics
Bawana Road, Delhi-110042
 CANDIDATE’S DECLARATION

We, Akshit Saini(2K20/A12/59) and Aman Kaushik(2K20/A12/61))

students of B. Tech. hereby declare that the project dissertation titled
“Errors And Approximation” which is submitted by us to the
Department of Applied Mathematics, Delhi Technological
University, Delhi in fulfilment of the requirement for the Mid-Term/
Innovative Project for first year, is correct and original . This work
has not previously formed for the basis for the award of any Degree,
Diploma Associate ship, Fellowship or other similar title or
recognition.

Place: Delhi

Akshit Saini(2K20/A12/59)
Aman Kaushik(2K20/A12/61)

Department of Applied Mathematics

DELHI TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
(FORMERLY Delhi College of Engineering)
Bawana Road, Delhi-110042
 CERTIFICATE

We hereby certify that the project Dissertation titled “ Errors And

Approximation ” which is submitted by Akshit Saini (2K20/A12/59)
and Aman Kaushik (2K20/A12/61) , Delhi Technological
University, Delhi in complete fulfilment of the requirement for the
Mid-Term/ Innovative Project for first year, is a record of the project
work carried out by the students under my supervision.
To the best of my knowledge this work has not been submitted in
part or full for any Degree or Diploma to this University or
elsewhere.

Place: Delhi

MRS. TRASHA GUPTA

(Professor)
 CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION
2. FORMULAE FOR DIFFERENT TYPES OF ERRORS
3. TYPES OF ERRORS
4. TAYLOR’S THEOREM
5. ERROR ANALYSIS
6. APPLICATIONS OF ERROR ANALYSIS
 INTRODUCTION

❖ The Error and Approximation is a topic of interest to all engineers. All the steps taken
in the experiments or studies in the real world are not straightforward or exact , so it
creates a errors (deviation) in the results we get from the solutions.
❖ Approximation leads to error. Estimating the errors in computation and calculations is
necessary for reliability of computed results.

• While dealing with errors two terms are taken into account that are -
1) Accuracy: It refers to how closely the measured or computed value matches with
the true value.
2) Precision: It refers to how closely the computed or measured values agree with
each other in repeated set of computation or measurements.

❖ Approximation usually occurs when an exact form or an exact numerical number is

unknown or difficult to obtain. To talk about approximation, we have to introduce a new
concept ''Number of Significant Figures''(number of digits after a coma) that indicates
Precision. Most of the times when we have a number with many digits after a coma, we
often take three digits, in other terms, we approximate the number. Eg. Computer
programs in numerical methods often take an specific number of significant digits.

❖ Error: ''Numerical errors arise from the use of approximations to represent exact
mathematical operations and quantities. This include truncation errors, which result
when approximations are used to represent exact mathematical procedures, and round-off
errors, which result when numbers having significant figures, are used to represent exact
numbers.''. The errors appears for a simple reason, which is ''empirical measurements'', all
the data that we take are by our senses, we are not perfect so some deviations are include
in every measurement we take. That's why is so important to calculate them, and try to
have a small error, which indicates that we are really close from the exact result or near
the result that we expect.
➢ Formula for different Errors:

1) The error in a computed quantity is defined as

Error = True Value - Approximate Value.
2) Absolute value of an error is called the absolute error.

Absolute Error = |𝐟𝐱 | |∆𝒙| + |𝐟𝐲 | |∆𝒚|

3) The relative error is a measure of the error in relation to the size of the true value as
given by
𝑬𝑹𝑹𝑶𝑹 |𝒅𝒇|
Relative Error = = |𝒇|
𝑻𝑹𝑼𝑬 𝑽𝑨𝑳𝑼𝑬

• Here, we assume that the true value is non-zero value.

4) The percentage error is defined as

|𝒅𝒇|
Percentage Error = |Relative Error| × 100 = |𝒇|
× 100

➢ Types of errors

1. Truncation Errors: it has two types of errors-

a) Local truncation error: The local truncation error is the error that our increment
function A, causes during a given iteration, assuming perfect knowledge of the true
solution at the previous iteration.
b) Global truncation error: The global truncation error is the accumulation of the
local truncation error over all of the iterations, assuming perfect knowledge of the
true solution at the initial time step.

2. Rounding Error: rounding error, is the difference between the calculated

approximation of a number and its exact mathematical value. Eg: Truncation: simply
chop off the remaining digits; also called rounding to zero. 0.142857 ≈ 0.142
(dropping all significant digits after 3rd) Round to nearest: round to the nearest value,
with ties broken in one of two ways. The result may round up or round down.
0.142857 ≈ 0.143 (rounding the 4th significant digit. This is rounded up because 8 is
higher than 5)
➢ Taylor’s theorem

Let f be a real-valued function defined on an interval I . Let f be n-times differentiable at a

given point a. The Taylor’s polynomial of degree n for the function f at the point a, denoted
by Tn , is defined by
∑𝑛 (𝑖)
𝑖=0 𝑓 (𝑎) (𝑥 − 𝑎)
𝑖
Tn(x) = ; x∈R
𝑖!

. Let f be (n+1)-times differentiable function on an open interval containing the points a and
x. Then there exists a number θ between a and x such that
𝑓 (𝑛+1) (𝜃) (𝑥 − 𝑎)(𝑛+1)
f(x) = Tn(x) +
(𝑛+1) !

where Tn is the Taylor’s polynomial of degree n for f at the point a and the second term on
the righthand side is called the remainder term.
For instance, if we know f(a), f’(a) ,……….., f n (a) and we seek an approximate value of f (a + h) for
some real number h, then the Taylor’s theorem can be used to get
f ” (a) (𝑛−1)
ℎ ℎ(𝑛)
f(a + h) ≈ f(a) + h f ’(a) + h2 + ………+ (𝑛−1) !
𝑓 (𝑛−1) (a) + 𝑓 (𝑛) (𝑎 + 𝜃ℎ)
2! 𝑛!

ℎ ( 𝑛)
where, Remainder term is = 𝑓 (𝑛) (𝑎 + 𝜃ℎ)
𝑛!

The Taylor’s theorem helps us to obtain an approximate value of a sufficiently smooth

function in a small neighbourhood of a given point a when the value of f and all its
derivatives up to a sufficient order is known at the point a.
The Remainder term involved in approximating f(x) by the Taylor’s polynomial Tn(x) is also
called the Truncation error.
ERROR ANALYSIS

▪ Numerical analysis deals with developing methods, called numerical methods, to

approximate a solution of a given Mathematical problem (whenever a solution exists).
The approximate solution obtained by this method will involve an error which is
precisely the difference between the exact solution and the approximate solution.
Thus, we have
Exact Solution =Approximate Solution+ Error
We call this error the mathematical error.
▪ The study of numerical methods is incomplete if we don’t develop algorithms and
implement the algorithms like computer codes. The outcome of the computer code is
a set of numerical values to the approximate solution obtained using a numerical
method. Such a set of numerical values is called the numerical solution to the given
Mathematical problem. During the process of computation, the computer introduces a
new error, called the arithmetic error and we have
Approximate Solution = Numerical Solution + Arithmetic Error.

▪ The error involved in the numerical solution when compared to the exact solution can
be worser than the mathematical error and is now given by
Exact Solution = Numerical Solution + Mathematical Error + Arithmetic Error.

▪ The Total Error is defined as Total Error = Mathematical Error + Arithmetic Error. A
digital calculating device can hold only a finite number of digits because of memory
restrictions. Therefore, a number cannot be stored exactly. Certain approximation
needs to be done, and only an approximate value of the given number will finally be
stored in the device. For further calculations, this approximate value is used instead of
the exact value of the number. This is the source of arithmetic error. We had
introduced different types of errors that we come across. Error Analysis and their
effects in the computation. At the end of this REPORT, we will be familiar with the
arithmetic errors, their effect on computed results and some ways to minimize this
error in the computation.
➢ APPLICATIONS OF ERROR ANALYSIS

a) Global positioning system- To understand how GPS works, and to know what
magnitude errors should be expected, the analysis of errors computed using the global
positioning system is important. The Global Positioning System performs corrections
by detecting clock errors and other effects but there are still some errors left that may
not be corrected.
b) Molecular dynamics simulation- In molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, there are
errors due to inadequate sampling of the phase space or infrequently occurring events,
these lead to the statistical error due to random fluctuation in the measurements.

c) Scientific data verification - Estimation usually have a small amount of error, and
repeated measurements of the same object will usually lead to a small difference in
the reading. This difference can be analyzed, and then follow some of the known
mathematical properties and statistical properties. In the event that the data collection
appears to be too reliable for the hypothesis, i.e., the amount of error that would have
occurred in such estimates does not appear, the conclusion can be drawn that it is
possible that the data was fake. Error analysis alone is not enough to prove that the
data was fabricated or falsified, but it can provide the supporting evidence needed to
substantiate the allegations of misconduct.

Some applications of approximation in daily life are

We use approximate numbers for a number of tasks like – to know quick estimate of travel
times and estimating distances and dimensions, project our grocery expense for the week , to
guess how tall the neighbour’s tree , to predict how many kg we will weigh by next month or
to predict even grade in a test, etc .
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

1) http://EzineArticles.com
2) https://intl.siyavula.com
3) https://en.wikipedia.org
4) http://www.math.iitb.ac.in
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1989.
6) S. D. Conte and Carl de Boor, Elementary Numerical Analysis - An Algorithmic
Approach (3rd edition), McGraw-Hill, 1981.
7) www.google.co.in
8) www.chegg.com