fudge factor

fudge factor

Room for error or mistakes. I'm not very good at math, so I always leave a fudge factor when I'm tallying up my expenditures for the month.
See also: factor, fudge
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

fudge factor

Fig. a margin of error. I never use a fudge factor. I measure correctly, and I cut the material exactly the way I measured it. I built in a fudge factor of three percent.
See also: factor, fudge
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

fudge factor

a figure which is included in a calculation in order to account for some unquantified but significant phenomenon or to ensure a desired result.
Fudge, apparently originating in the mid 18th century as an exclamation of disgust or irritation, later acquired a specific verbal sense in printers' jargon, meaning to ‘do work imperfectly or as best you can with the materials available’.
See also: factor, fudge
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

fudge factor

n. a margin of error. I never use a fudge factor. I measure correctly, and I cut the material exactly the way I measured it.
See also: factor, fudge
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • address (one's) comments to (someone or something)
  • address comments or remarks to
  • address (one's) remarks to (someone or something)
  • be in it for
  • be at a disadvantage
  • at a disadvantage
  • be more than (something)
  • be more than glad, ready, etc.
  • away from it all
  • (something) is over (one's) head
References in periodicals archive
To add credibility to projected gross margins, build in a fudge factor of 2%-3%.
Don't assume the HIV hypothesis and defend it with ad hoc arguments and fudge factors; test its various claims impartially.
Dark matter may indeed be a "fudge factor," but it's a unifying concept that explains many disparate phenomena simultaneously--the hallmark of a robust scientific theory.
TAKEOFF FUDGE FACTORS What if the conditions are not listed in the aircraft manual?
QFFI has tried to adjust IRI data as best it can in light of these multiple fudge factors, but there is a lot of guesswork involved--especially for segments that go unmentioned by Packaged Facts.
Am I double-counting components, or adding in too high a fudge factor for unknowns?
Keep these three financial lists separate but add them up (include a fudge factor of 10%).
Denning that he found the markings "extremely variable," and sometimes "partially or totally obscured." That gave him a convenient fudge factor that kept him from realizing that different parts of the planet were drifting into view.
For packed or compacted snow, for example, the "fair"/"medium" braking action rating calls for a fudge factor of 1.2, making our 1800-foot need under normal conditions grow to 2160 feet.
To account, in part, for the possibility that their best engineering judgment (these guesses) undervalued or ignored critical factors, these authors deliberately wrote a conservative "fudge factor' into their calculations --an extra factor of 10 or 100 here and there to allow for errors in their original assumptions.
If the [ROC.sub.R] is less than or equal to [ROC.sub.A] (after applying a conservative "Did I do this right?" fudge factor), you're good to go.
Piecing this information together requires introducing a lot of what NIST physicist Brian Simonds calls 'fudge factors'.
They find the conflict so confounding that they are talking about coming up with "new physics," incorporating perhaps some yet-to-be-discovered particle or other cosmic "fudge factors" like dark energy or dark matter.
It never does.) Time to put in formal fudge factors. But it is rolling out now, so there should be alleviation of the affected citizens' very genuine plight.
The fudge factors might only be a few tenths of a percentage point.