absolute error

For example, by minimizing the least absolute error rather than the least square error.

The Herschel spacecraft is three-axis stabilized, the absolute pointing error needs to be less than 3.7 arc seconds.

One commonly distinguishes between the relative error and the absolute error.

The absolute error is the magnitude of the difference between the exact value and the approximation.

The relative error is the absolute error divided by the magnitude of the exact value.

Thus the sum of absolute errors remains the same.

From 1976 to 1985, the average absolute error of the Harvey method, calculated retroactively, was 1.7 percentage points.

The Planck satellite is spun at one revolution per minute, the absolute pointing error needs to be less than 37 arc min.

The smoothed values of the error and the absolute error are given by:

The absolute error only drops from then on, while the relative error stays within the same bounds across all orders of magnitude.