4. Intel's Miscalculation

A math professor in 1994 discovered and publicized a flaw in Intel's popular Pentium processor. The company claimed that the calculating error caused by the flaw would happen so rarely that the vast majority of users wouldn't notice and so it was announced that Intel will replace chips upon request to users who could prove they were affected.

But the angry customers demanded a replacement for anyone who asked and Intel had to agree. This cost Intel $475 million.

5. Mars, We've Had a Problem

In 1999 NASA engineers lost contact with the Mars Climate Orbiter as they attempted to place it in Mars's orbit for research. The cause was that one team was using a program that calculated distance in English units such as inches, feet and pounds, while another team used metric units. This error led to faulty measurements of the spacecraft's trajectory and the sudden death of an operation that cost more than $655 million.