IPC International Community magazine an association member publication
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28 I-CONNECT007 MAGAZINE I MARCH 2026 CAUGHT IN THE CROSSHATCH A Cautionary Tale of Detective Work BY M A RT Y N GAU D I O N , P O L A R I N ST R U M E N TS LT D T H E P U LS E A chance meeting at a family wedding the other week led to a conversation about numbers, an introduction to a book entitled Humble Pi, and how numeric misinterpretation can lead to all kinds of unexpected outcomes, some just costly, others tragic. It's a good and amus- ing read, and as a result of this conversation with someone I had previously never met, I feel some- what (at least temporarily) enlightened. One of the takeaways of the book is that humans are born to think logarithmically, and linear math has to be formally educated into our brains. That got me curious for more. Back in the World of Work The Monday morning after that chance meeting, an email landed in my inbox from a colleague in our Singapore office: "One of our OEM customers is getting very different results when compared with his supplier, despite them both using identi- cal Polar software. What could cause that?" As is often the case, customer confidentiality meant that