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Absolute Relative Error

Absolute error refers to the physical error in a measurement, such as ±1mm. Relative error expresses error as a percentage of the measured value to determine accuracy relative to the size of the object. Relative error is calculated by dividing the absolute error by the measured value. For example, measuring a room at 3.215m with an error of ±1mm results in a relative error of 0.0003%, while measuring a cylinder at 0.075m with the same error results in a higher relative error of 0.01% due to the smaller measured value. Relative error provides a way to compare the accuracy of measurements with different values but the same absolute error.

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Samuel Flexor Gyasi
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265 views1 page

Absolute Relative Error

Absolute error refers to the physical error in a measurement, such as ±1mm. Relative error expresses error as a percentage of the measured value to determine accuracy relative to the size of the object. Relative error is calculated by dividing the absolute error by the measured value. For example, measuring a room at 3.215m with an error of ±1mm results in a relative error of 0.0003%, while measuring a cylinder at 0.075m with the same error results in a higher relative error of 0.01% due to the smaller measured value. Relative error provides a way to compare the accuracy of measurements with different values but the same absolute error.

Uploaded by

Samuel Flexor Gyasi
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Absolute and Relative Error

Absolute and relative error are two types of error with which every experimental scientist should be familiar. The differences are important. Absolute Error: Absolute error is the amount of physical error in a measurement, period. Lets say a meter stick is used to measure a given distance. The error is rather hastily made, but it is good to 1mm . This is the absolute error of the measurement. That is, absolute error = 1mm (0.001m).

In terms common to Error Propagation

absolute error = x
where x is any variable.

gives an indication of how good a measurement is relative to the Relative Error: Relative error size of the thing being measured. Lets say that two students measure two objects with a meter stick. One student measures the height of a room and gets a value of 3.215 meters 1mm (0.001m). Another student measures the height of a small cylinder and measures 0.075 meters 1mm (0.001m). Clearly, the overall accuracy of the ceiling height is much better than that of the 7.5 cm cylinder. The comparative accuracy of these measurements can be determined by looking at their relative errors.

relative error =

absolute error value of thing measured

or in terms common to Error Propagation

relative error =

x x

where x is any variable. Now, in our example,

0.001m relative errorceiling height = 100 = 0.0003% 3.125 m relativeerrorcylinder height = 0.001m 100 = 0.01% 0.075 m

Clearly, the relative error in the ceiling height is considerably smaller than the relative error in the cylinder height even though the amount of absolute error is the same in each case.

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