I was watching ``What The Victorians Did For Us'', and they were
getting into Charles Babbage building his various impossible-to-finish
Analysers. In the setup the narrator mentioned that hand-calculated
numerical tables in those days were prone to errors, and that ``one error
cost the government 3.5 million pounds''.
It doesn't say *what* that error was, though, so I imagine the
easiest way to find out is to ask here. Anyone know what they're
talking about in this case?
It has occurred to me that 3.5 million pounds might totalled up
as the result of something like counting the time they sailed the fleet
into the Isles of Scilly, but attributing *that* to a single error is
being too reductive.
--
Joseph Nebus
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