How many decimal places does Tesla use?

[JetFalcon]

If you work for Tesla as an engineer, scientist, programmer, etc. How many decimal places are these professionals expected to be accurate by? I typed in a random question in google asking "how many decimal places does NASA use" and I got an answer of 15 decimal places. If it were whole numbers, that's 100 trillion if followed by a number 1, but a number less than one and they have to account for that? Like what would happen if that 14th decimal place was suppose to be a number 2 but someone rounded up so they inputted a number 3? Most people may not even want to factor in one penny in a huge financial statement of a few billion.

But having to be accurate to 15 decimal places, that feels like I can't be one penny off if I have $9.99 trillion budget to account for. People throw pennies on the ground and they don't need to have $9.99 trillion to think much about it. Seems like an interesting concept of how seriously people take decimal places, I get annoyed when my spreadsheet shows a bunch of decimal related numbers and I only to see $12.03 not $12.0326094851554.

Is it possible Space X rockets blew up because someone was off by the 15th decimal in their calculations since this is what Nasa goes by?

How Much Pi Do You Really Need?

To celebrate Pi Day, we look at applications—from NASA to cars—that prove you can have too much of a good thing.

www.wired.com

 

[HankLloydRight]

I think you're asking the wrong question, and making the wrong assumption. The article you posted says that NASA uses π to 15 decimal places. That's it. And they're using 15 digits of π to calculate the orbit of the Voyager 1 spacecraft, not build physical parts.

You can't just say "how many decimal places does a company use?" That's way too broad of a question.

The answer depends on the specific problem at hand and how much accuracy is required. For some engineers working on a problem, they only might require 5 digits of precision, others 10 and other none at all. Programmers have a different set of requirements, and the precision has different meanings depending on the problem.

So the answer to your questions is: "They use as many as they need". There's no specific number.

 

[HankLloydRight]

Elon Musk recently told employees:

“Due to the nature of Cybertruck, which is made of bright metal with mostly straight edges, any dimensional variation shows up like a sore thumb.

“All parts for this vehicle, whether internal or from suppliers, need to be designed and built to sub 10 micron accuracy.”

Which makes no sense at all. Does sub 10 micron accuracy matter for the tires or wheels? Nope. I doubt if you took 10 Cybertruck tires and wheels and measured them that they'd all be +/- 10 microns within each other.

But if you're talking about windshield fitment to the body, it matters a lot more (but still not at sub 10 microns).

10 microns= 0.00001 meters. So that's 5 digits of accuracy. Let's say that SpaceX needs accuracy down to the micron - one millionth of a meter - that's only 6 digits of accuracy. I don't know what the tolerances is at NASA and SpaceX for physical parts, but I doubt it's down to the micron level for most parts larger than an iPhone. Smaller parts and electronics, sure.

 

[Silicon Desert]

I think you're asking the wrong question, and making the wrong assumption. The article you posted says that NASA uses π to 15 decimal places. That's it. And they're using 15 digits of π to calculate the orbit of the Voyager 1 spacecraft, not build physical parts.

You can't just say "how many decimal places does a company use?" That's way too broad of a question.

The answer depends on the specific problem at hand and how much accuracy is required. For some engineers working on a problem, they only might require 5 digits of precision, others 10 and other none at all. Programmers have a different set of requirements, and the precision has different meanings depending on the problem.

So the answer to your questions is: "They use as many as they need". There's no specific number.

I like that response. Similarly, I guess I could quote my consulting rate to 15 decimal places on my next Tesla gig, but I will still get the same amount of money.