error

a wrong action attributable to bad judgment or ignorance or inattention

"he made a bad mistake"

"she was quick to point out my errors"

"I could understand his English in spite of his grammatical faults" inadvertent incorrectness a misconception resulting from incorrect information (baseball) a failure of a defensive player to make an out when normal play would have sufficed departure from what is ethically acceptable (computer science) the occurrence of an incorrect result produced by a computer part of a statement that is not correct

"the book was full of errors"

The word ''error'' has different meanings in different domains. Current meanings in some of those domains are described below. The Latin languageLatin word ''error'' meant "wandering" or "straying". at Montparnasse, France, 1865 ]]

Statistics - An error is a difference between a computed, estimated, or measured value and the true, specified, or theoretically correct value. See also errors and residuals in statistics.

Experimental science - An error is a bound on the precision and accuracy of the result of a measurement. These can be classified into two types: statistical error (see above) and systematic error. Statistical error is caused by random (and therefore inherently unpredictable) fluctuations in the measurement apparatus, whereas systematic error is caused by an unknown but nonrandom fluctuation. If the cause of the systematic error can be identified, then it can usually be eliminated.

Engineering - An error is a difference between desired and actual performance. Engineers often seek to design systems in such a way as to mitigate or preferably avoid the effects of error, whether Hanlon's Razorunintentional or not. One type of error is human error which includes cognitive bias. Human factors engineering is often applied to designs in an attempt to minimize this type of error by making systems more forgiving or error-tolerant. Errors in a system can also be latent design errors that may go unnoticed for years, until the right set of circumstances arises that cause them to become active. See also Observational error.bobok

Medicine - See medical error for a description of error in medicine.

Aviation - See aviation safety for a description of how flying has been made safer by making the aviation system more error-tolerant.

Telecommunication - An error is a deviation from a correct value caused by a malfunction in a system or a functional unit. An example would be the occurrence of a wrong bit caused by an equipment malfunction. (Sources: Federal Standard 1037C and MIL-STD-188). See also error-correcting code and error-detecting code . A soft error is a deviation from a correct value which does not necessarily imply a malfunction.

Computer programming - An error may be a piece of incorrectly written program code. A ''syntax error'' is an ungrammatical or nonsensical statement in a program; one that cannot be parsed by the language implementation. A ''logic error'' is a mistake in the algorithm used, which causes erroneous results or undesired operation. Anti-patterns, or undesirable program design elements, may make it harder to detect or correct errors.An error may also be an ''exception'', a condition which arises during program execution due to an unexpected event. For instance, it is an error to attempt to write more files onto a disk that is full. Careful programmers write code that can handle errors that may occur; strategies for doing so include using error codes and using exception handling. Continuing past an unhandled error can cause error avalanche, a condition in which errors pile up and behavior becomes more erratic.

Linguistics - An individual language user's deviations from standard language paradigms are sometimes referred to as errors. At present, this usage is out of favor outside of language classes. Those who recognize the role of language usage in everyday social class distinctions feel that linguistics should be descriptive rather than prescriptive to avoid reinforcing dominant class value judgments about what linguistic forms should and should not be used.

Biology - An error is said to occur when perfect fidelity is lost in the copying of information. For example, in an asexually reproducing species, an error (or mutation) has occurred for each DNA nucleotide that differs between the child and the parent. Errors in this sense are not judged as "good" or "bad", although an error may make an organism either more or less adapted to its natural environmentenvironment.

Baseball - An error is judged by the official scorer when a runner advances a base because of a fielding mistake, and perfect play would have prevented the advancement, and the mistake was physical. Mental misjudgments are not errors. Failing to get more than one out on given play is not an error. Application of this rule is necessarily subjective. See error (baseball).

See also -

Mistake

Blunder

Trial and error

Measurement error

Spell checking

Cognitive bias

Typo

Root cause

Root cause analysis

External links -

books.nap.edu - Why do errors happen? (pdf)

books.nap.edu - Advance Copy of ''To Err is Human - Building a Safer Health System''

phys.columbia.edu - Error Analysis !TutorialCategory:Errorcategory :Metrologyde:Fehleres:Errornl: Foutja:エラーpl:Błądpt:Er roru:Ошибкаsv:Fel

Mis-struck World Coins
Descriptions and illustrations of interesting, mis-struck World Coins. Types of error coins discussed include Brockages, Double Strikes, and Off-Centers.
http://www.WorldErrors.com

Aussie Coin Varieties
Comprehensive guide to Australian Coins,Banknotes, Errors and Varieties and price guides.
http://www.aussiecoinvarieties.com/

Cannot find Weapons of Mass Destruction
Politically (in-)correct 404 error message.
http://www.coxar.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/

Java.sun.com: The Source for Java Technology
Sun's home for Java. Offers Windows, Solaris, and Linux Java Development Kits (JDKs), extensions, news, tutorials, and product information.
http://java.sun.com/

No Error
Relates the musical scene and non-scene news. News about some musical figures of the current demoscene.
http://noerror.scene.org/

Salon
The online arts and culture magazine, with regular features on or by various literary luminaries.
http://www.salon.com/