Absolute Error

The absolute error is the absolute value of the difference between a measured value and the exact value. The units of the absolute error correspond to the units of the measures. By definition, the absolute error is always greater than or equal to 0.

Note that the absolute error gives only the distance between the measurements but does not say how significant the error is. For example, consider a professional basketball game. Suppose that the expected number of attendees was 28 000, but the actual number of people in attendance is 26 890. Absolute Error = |26 890 - 28 000| ⇓ Absolute Error = 1110 attendees Here, the absolute error is 1110 attendees, but it is unknown whether this error is big or small. In this case, the relative error is a better indicator of the magnitude of the error.