Final answer:
Comparing manual calculations to computer calculations involves using reasonableness checks and understanding the significance of figures to ensure accuracy. Check digits and mathematical accuracy are also vital, especially in computerized environments.
Step-by-step explanation:
The comparison between manual calculations and computer calculations involves several checks and balances to ensure accuracy. A reasonableness check or limit check is when you examine the magnitude, direction, and units of an answer to assess if it seems plausible. In the context of both manual and computer calculations, this step is crucial to catch any potential errors that may have occurred during the calculation process. For instance, if you are calculating the volume of an object and your result is in cubic kilometers, this would likely be unreasonable for everyday objects and could indicate an error.
Understanding the number of digits to use, often referred to as significant figures, is another key aspect. Manual calculations often impose a conscious choice about the number of significant digits to keep, guided by the rules of precision and accuracy. Computers will typically provide many more digits than necessary, which can create a false impression of precision; hence, it's often advisable to round the results to a reasonable number of significant figures.
It's also important to understand how to check mathematical accuracy which can involve verifying the actual computations or utilizing techniques such as check digits, particularly in computer calculations for error detection in sequences of numbers, such as identifiers or personal information.