Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Sanity check
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
===Mathematical=== A sanity test can refer to various [[order of magnitude|orders of magnitude]] and other simple [[rule of thumb|rule-of-thumb]] devices applied to cross-check [[mathematics|mathematical]] [[calculations]]. For example: *If one were to attempt to [[square (algebra)|square]] 738 and calculated 54,464, a quick sanity check could show that this result cannot be true. Consider that {{awrap|1=700 < 738,}} yet {{awrap|1=700{{sup|2}} = 7{{sup|2}} Γ 100{{sup|2}} =}} {{awrap|1=490,000 > 54,464.}} Since squaring positive integers preserves their [[Inequality (mathematics)#Applying a function to both sides|inequality]], the result cannot be true, and so the calculated result is incorrect. The correct answer, {{awrap|1=738{{sup|2}} = 544,644,}} is more than 10 times higher than 54,464. *In multiplication, {{awrap|1=918 Γ 155}} is not 142,135 since 918 is divisible by three but 142,135 is not (digits add up to 16, not a [[3#Mathematics|multiple of three]]). Also, the product must end in the same digit as the product of end-digits: {{awrap|1=8 Γ 5 = 40,}} but 142,135 does not end in "0" like "40", while the correct answer does: {{awrap|1=918 Γ 155 = 142,290.}} An even quicker check is that the product of even and odd numbers is even, whereas 142,135 is odd.
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)