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Useless arithmetic

Orrin H. Pilkey

2007230 pagesabout 4–5 hours
2007
first published
  • 2007Columbia University Press · 230 pages · ENGISBN 9780231132121
  • 2007Columbia University Press · 248 pages · ENGISBN 9780231506991
  • 2014Columbia University Press · 247 pages · ENGISBN 9781281790187

"The book offers fascinating case studies depicting how the seductiveness of quantitative models has led to unmanageable nuclear waste disposal practices, poisoned mining sites, unjustifiable faith in predicted sea level rise rates, bad predictions of future shoreline erosion rates, overoptimistic cost estimates of artificial beaches, and a host of other thorny problems. The authors demonstrate how many modelers have been reckless, employing fudge factors to assure "correct" answers and caring little if their models actually worked."--BOOK JACKET

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