Have you been paying attention in your numerical analysis or scientific computation courses? If not, it could be a costly mistake. Here are some real life examples of what can happen when numerical algorithms are not correctly applied.
- The Patriot Missile failure, in Dharan, Saudi Arabia, on February 25, 1991 which resulted in 28 deaths, is ultimately attributable to poor handling of rounding errors.
- The explosion of the Ariane 5 rocket just after lift-off on its maiden voyage off French Guiana, on June 4, 1996, was ultimately the consequence of a simple overflow.
- The sinking of the Sleipner A offshore platform in Gandsfjorden near Stavanger, Norway, on August 23, 1991, resulted in a loss of nearly one billion dollars. It was found to be the result of inaccurate finite element analysis.
Cem Ozdogan
2010-10-09
