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Spock and his constant use of precision

Crewman47

Commodore
Newbie
This is one thing that has been a source of amusement but at the same time a bit of an annoyance for me anyway whenever Spock gives precise figures like 14.7 seconds or 1 year 3 months and 2 days and I was wondering why exactly Spock, and other Vulcans do this? I mean why should it be illogical to give whole figures instead of precise figures for certain estimations and how can it not cuase an annoyance to any non-Vulcans, like the crew of the Enterprise.

Any thoughts?
 
Who knows. Of course, in almost every case, Spock still has to round the numbers. He might say 3.752 seconds, but it's probably actually closer to 3.75199283023 seconds. :lol:
 
I honestly don't remember other Vulcans really doing this. Perhaps T'Pol, but I'll just consider that the influence of Spock's character on the writers.

I always figured it was a Spock thing. Being the only Vulcan on a ship of Humans, and being half-Human at that, I figure that he felt he always needed to be in a state of constant control. Probably more so than the typical Vulcan. He probably wasn't at ease with himself either, and felt he couldn't relax or loosen up a bit. Giving such precise numbers (ie. "37.432 hours") may have served as some sort of excersize to help keep him in control.




It may also be that Vulcans do this around "lesser" species like Humans, just to show off and seem superior.

Not quite logical, but we've all seen them act in ways that are illogical. Take Me Out to the Holosuite comes to mind.
 
I find that many Vulcan idiosyncrasies are a lot like those of people with high-function autistic-spectrum conditions -- a very rational and ordered thought process, difficulty understanding others' emotional responses, excessively literal interpretation of others' slang and idiomatic speech, a meticulous attention to detail and precision. I've always had some tendencies in that direction myself (though I've never actually been tested for the condition), and I prefer to be precise in my use of words and numbers, to dislike rounding things off or being too vague. (Although, for full disclosure, I must confess that Spock was my main childhood role model, so that could be a factor too.)

Perhaps the average Vulcan brain is more prone to that mode of thought than the average human brain. If anything, Vulcan education and philosophy actively encourage people to think along those lines. Maybe Surak had the equivalent of high-function autism or Asperger's Syndrome, and so the behaviors associated with that kind of condition are promoted by Vulcan culture. At minimum, it would be an affectation, but maybe their upbringing actually conditions their brains to work along those lines, due to the plasticity of the developing brain.
 
Spock was clearly a mathematical genius - he computed the trajectory for the Bird Of Prey in his head in ST:TVH, for example.

Maybe he is like those people who can do incredibly complex calculations seemingly intuitively.

Sarek also corrects someone's ( I think it is Kirk ) rough figure for Sarek's age in Journey To Babel, so it would appear to be a family trait at least.
 
Maybe he just guessed all of those times but wanted to look smart.
 
I always am bothered by these fractions of a second...like "it will happen in 14.2 seconds..." etc. - at what point do we start counting the 14.2 seconds - when he utters the first figure, when he is finished saying 14.2 seconds? Very annoying...as Bailey said about Sulu "now he's doing a countdown!!!" WHAT ARE YOU ROBOTS!!!
 
Giving a precise answer is a logical thing to do.
The individual requesting the information can round/truncate as they wish.
 
But let's face it, no one ever checked him. Or timed him. He could have been talking out of his hat for all we know.
 
I've got to say this: As a kid, Spock's precision was a huge inspiration to me. Here was a guy who could rattle off arcane data off the top of his head in a dry, professional voice. I envied his cool, educated demeanour. And that probably began me on the road to whatever I am now. :)

Of course, I watched "Spock's Brain" again last week and realised the random thing he was trying to say at the end about the ancient Greeks was total B.S. Very disillusioning.
 
Spock's use of precision in That Which Survives was exaggerated.

Oh, I wouldn't say so. If you count down to your impending death, precision is quite useful. And indeed Scotty's rescue efforts hinged on seconds, rather than the inaccurate minutes that people kept pushing and Spock kept rejecting.

There are other examples where Spock's decimals are nonsense, but "That Which Survives" features both a rational use of precision and a psychologically appropriate situation for Spock to insist on it and for others to be bothered by it.

A better example of nonsense decimals, from "Catspaw":

"Picking up life-form readings. 24 degrees, mark 7.
Range 137.16 meters."

Were Sylvia and Korob really less than a centimeter from each other at the time, to justify giving both readings at centimeter precision? And what was Spock thinking at the time - that the lifeforms he is reading are almost microscopic and completely immobile? He should have said so to Kirk! Later on, Spock admittedly relents and says "Just over one hundred meters".

...Any others? I rather think the "Spock gives unnecessary decimals" thing is mostly a myth similar to "Kirk has sex with alien babes". It happens, but not as often as we think.

Timo Saloniemi
 
The center of mass of Sylvia and Korob were at 137.16 meters?
Also remember that there is an error associated with every measurement. To incorporate that into the dialogue would be tedious.
 
I wonder if Spock understands the concept of significant figures or digits.

Spock's precision reminds me of when I used to work at a research facility in the physical testing laboratory. The testing machine might give a result of 32367 psi but we'd only report 32400 psi becase the testing standard required that you only report three significant figures. If a testing machine registered a test result of 8432 psi, we'd only report 8430 psi. Any more than three significant figures is just too insignificant and a little misleading in regards to the accuracy of the test. The testing machine was capable of low number results which meant it had to be able to show numbers down to the ones digit.

I used to train people to operare these testing machines and reporting the data. Some had a lot of trouble understanding the significant figures thing. They said if the machine showed a five digit result then it should be reported that way.

But later the software for these machines got more sophisticaled so that we could configure it to round it off to three significant figures no matter the magnitude of the test results. This was back in the early '90s or so.

I can imagine Spock having trouble like some of the people I trained.

Robert
 
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