The “exact” version they wanted was full of approximations too. They just didn’t have enough numerical literacy to understand how to say how much approximation

The “exact” version they wanted was full of approximations too. They just didn’t have enough numerical literacy to understand how to say how much approximation they are ok with. I guarantee nothing in anyone’s time accounting system is measured to double-precision accuracy. Or at least, I’ve never quite figured out the knack myself for stopping work within a particular 6 picosecond window.