Electrical Measurements & Instrumentation

Course Code: EEE 374

Lecture 03
Course Instructor: Dr. Hammad Omer (Tenured Associate Professor)
(PhD, MS, MCS, PGD (IT) B.Eng.)
Commonwealth Scholar (Imperial College London, United Kingdom)
Group Lead: Medical Image Processing Research Group
(www.miprg.com)
Department of Electrical Engineering
COMSATS University, Islamabad
Dated: 12/09/2024
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Accuracy and Precision
• Accuracy means how close the measurement is to the actual
measured quantity
• For example, when a voltmeter with an error of ±1% indicates
exactly 100V, the true level of the measured voltage is
somewhere between 99V and 101V
• Consider the digital voltmeter indication shown:

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Accuracy and Precision
• For 8.135V, the last numeral refers to millivolts. If the
measured quantity increases or decreases by 1mV, the
reading becomes 8.136V or 8.134V, respectively. Therefore,
the voltage is measured with a precision of 1mV

• To summarize, in measurement of a set, accuracy refers to

closeness of the measurements to a specific value, while
precision refers to the closeness of the measurements to each
other

• The instrument accuracy normally depends on the accuracy of

the internal components, and any error due to the
measurement precision must be smaller than that due to the
specified accuracy of the instrument

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Resolution and Significant Figures
• The measurement precision of an instrument defines the
smallest change in measured quantity that can be observed.
This (smallest observable change) is the resolution of the
instrument.
• For example, in a 10V analogue instrument scale that can be
read to a precision of 50mV, 50mV is the smallest voltage
change that can be observed. Thus the measurement
resolution is 50mV.
• Consider a potentiometer; a resistor with two terminals and a
contact that can be moved anywhere between the two. The
moveable contact slides over a track on one side of a number
of turns of resistance wire.
• Here, the contact does not slide along the whole length of the
wire but jumps from one point on one turn of the wire to a point
on the next turn.

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Resolution and Significant Figures
• The number of significant figures used in a measured quantity
indicate the precision of measurement.
• For the 8.135V measurement, the four significant figures show
that the measurement precision is 0.001V or 1mV. If the
measurement was made to a precision of 10mV, the display
would be 8.13V or 8.14V, having only three significant figures
• In the case of a resistance value stated as 47.3Ω, the actual
value may not be exactly 47.3Ω, but it is assumed to closer to
47.3Ω than 47.2Ω or 47.4Ω
• Let’s consider the result of using an electronic calculator to
determine the resistance:

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Resolution and Significant Figures
• There is no point to provide 10 significant figures when each of
the original quantities had only three significant figures. The
only reasonable approach is to use the same number of
significant figures in the answer as in the original quantities:

• No greater number of significant figures should be used in a

calculation result than those in the original quantities.

• When the quantities in a calculation have different precisions,

the precision of the answer should not be greater than the
least precise of the original quantities

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Measurement Error Combinations
• When a quantity is calculated from measurements made on
two (or more instruments), it must be assumed that the errors
due to instrument inaccuracy combine in the worst possible
way. The resulting error is then larger than the error in any one
instrument
• Sum of Quantities:
• Where a quantity is determined as the sum of two
measurements, the total error is the sum of the absolute
errors in each measurement (Figure on next slide)

• Where two or more measured quantities are summed to

determine a final quantity, the absolute values of the errors
must be summed to find the total possible error 7
Measurement Error Combinations

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Measurement Error Combinations

Note that the percentage error in the final quantity cannot be calculated directly
from the percentage errors in the two measured quantities
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Measurement Error Combinations
• Difference of Quantities:
• Here also the errors are additive

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Measurement Error Combinations
• Difference of Quantities:

• Percentage error in the difference to two quantities can be

very large.
• Measurement systems involving the difference of two
quantities should be avoided
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Measurement Error Combinations
• Product of Quantities:

• When a calculated quantity is the product of two or more

quantities, the percentage error is the sum of the
percentage errors in each quantity

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Measurement Error Combinations
• Product of Quantities:

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Measurement Error Combinations
• Product of Quantities:

• Therefore, when a voltage is measured with an accuracy of

±1% and a current is measured with an accuracy of ±2%, the
calculated power has an accuracy of ±3%

•
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Measurement Error Combinations
• Quotient of Quantities:

• The percentage error is the sum of the percentage errors in

each quantity:

• Quantity Raised to a Power:

• When a quantity A is raised to a power B, the percentage
error in AB can be shown as:

• For a current I with an accuracy of ±3%, the error in I2 is

2(±3%)=±6% 15
Measurement Error Combinations

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Measurement Error Combinations

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Measurement Error Combinations

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Basics of Statistical Analysis

• Arithmetic Mean Value:

• When measurements are not exactly equal, the best
approximation is found by calculating the average value
or arithmetic mean of the results:

• It helps minimize the random errors

• Some outliers can be rejected and not included to
calculate the mean value

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Basics of Statistical Analysis

• Deviation:
• The difference between any one measured value and the
arithmetic mean of a series of measurements is termed
as the deviation
• The deviations may be positive or negative and the
algebraic sum of the deviations is always zero
• The average deviation may be calculated as the absolute
values of the deviations
• Deviation might be regarded as an indicator of the
measurement precision

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Basics of Statistical Analysis

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Basics of Statistical Analysis

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Basics of Statistical Analysis
• Standard Deviation and Probable Error:
• The mean squared value of the deviations can be
calculated by first squaring each deviation value before
determining the average
• This gives a quantity known as the variance
• Taking the square root of the variance produces the root
mean squared (rms) value, also termed as the standard
deviation

• For the case of a large number of measurements in which

only random errors are present, it can be shown that the
probable error in any one measurement is 0.6745 times
the standard deviation:

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Basics of Statistical Analysis

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Question-1

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Question-1

• Answer:

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Question-2

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Question-2

Answer:

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Question-3

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Question-3

Answer:

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