CEP

CEP

       A wiki link on the subject can be found at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_error_probable

Here's a modified  excerpt from an email to some of my relatives on the same subject.

            Now if you did not take, or understand statistics, then the bottom line is accuracy.

            For example, a smaller CEP is a better number,  like when shooting artillery or mortars, or even during bombing, during missile strikes, or even Naval Gunfire training in already established impact areas. Often this training was and is with iron bombs and things, too. The idea is the weight is as important as the boom during training.

            Even I lived during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and CEP was a much discussed subject in the newspapers and at the time (circa early 1960's), all for common citizens like me. I was in the 9th grade at the time.

            I lived within a mile of the USA Pentagon, and the Russian missile CEP was reported as around 5 miles. So you go figure what you might do if this should happen to you where you live.

            By the way, we never knew what was the expected “boom” from a Russian nuclear bomb on top of a missile, though generally most imagined the worst.