The accumulation of numerical error through intermediate rounding in multi-step calculations is a fundamental and axiomatic principle of numerical analysis, making it common knowledge that requires no external citation.
The claim describes a textbook definition of round-off error propagation in numerical analysis. By definition, truncating or rounding intermediate values introduces small errors that compound over successive operations. This is a foundational mathematical truism rather than a contestable empirical hypothesis, so it is classified as COMMON_KNOWLEDGE.