It’s one of the useful functions of an engineer.

It's almost always the engineers, analysts and MBA spreadsheet pushers and other people removed from the physical consequences outputting these mistakes because it's way easier to not notice a misplaced decimal or incorrect value when you deal in pure numbers and know what they "should" be than you are the person actually figuring out how to make it happen the difference between needing 26666666.667 and 266666666.667 <units> of <widget> is pretty meaningful. Engineers don't output these mistakes as often as analysts or whatever because they work in organizations that invest more in catching them, not because they make them all that much less.

Whether talking weight or bulk a decimal place is approximately the difference between needing a wheelbarrow, a truck, a semi truck, a freight train and a ship.

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kergonath 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Around here, asking "does this number make sense?" when coming across a figure is second nature, reinforced since early in engineering school. The couple of engineers from the US that I know behave similarly, which makes sense because when your job is to solve practical problems and design stuff, precision matters.

> difference between needing 26666666.667 and 266666666.667 <units> of <widget> is pretty meaningful

To be fair, that’s why we’d use 2.6666666667e7 and 2.66666666667e8, which makes it easier to think about orders of magnitude. Processes, tools and methods must be adapted to reduce the risk of making a mistake.

	▲	Jblx2 an hour ago \| parent [-]
		>why we’d use 2.6666666667e7 and 2.66666666667e8 Engineers prefer (wait for it) "Engineering Notation": 26.67e6 and 266.7e6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineering_notation