Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-short-options-paper-shared-by-parts-a-and-b-of-the-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2019/s31/1/a/solution

Round-off error arises from representing numbers and carrying out arithmetic at finite precision: storing or subtracting nearly equal numbers can lose information even when the mathematical algorithm is exact. Truncation error arises from replacing a continuous or infinite mathematical operation by a finite approximation, such as discarding higher Taylor series terms in a finite difference. Refining a grid usually reduces truncation error but may increase accumulated round-off error; the two have different origins.

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