Allow me to set the stage by saying, I've been working my way through the Aubrey/Maturin series again.
This morning I was grading papers from my students regarding a project they'd done last week. A part of the project called for measuring the length of a ~6meter, somewhat flexible, PVC pipe with a long cloth tape measure. As scientists in training they were instructed to come up with an estimate of the error in their measurement and propagate that error through to future calculations.
One particular group had decided that 0.0001meters was a reasonable error. To which I replied "Far too small! A tenth of a milimeter, forsooth!"
I suspect they already think me insane. I have no idea how this will be received, though I did opt to not cross it out...