I'm working on a report which needs to explain in non-technical terms the effects of a cumulative error, and why it is of importance to use absolute calculations.
Definition of 'cumulative error' from dictionary.com:
an error that gradually increases in degree or significance during a series of measurements or calculations; an error that grows during observation
Ideally I could give a real world example so they grasp the concept of it without knowing about the specifics.
The first one I though of is 'Chinese whispers' which is pretty well known, but I wouldn't exactly classify it as 'real world'. Does anybody know of better examples?