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Accuracyprecisionerror Notes

gen physics

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
12 views29 pages

Accuracyprecisionerror Notes

gen physics

Uploaded by

ryanverbo90
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Measurement: Accuracy, Precision,

and Error
Objectives
• Distinguish among accuracy, precision, and
error of a measurement
Measurements
• Measurement
– quantity that has both a number and a unit
– fundamental to experimental science so must be able
take and evaluate them
Evaluating measurements
• Accuracy
– measure of how close a measurement comes to the
actual or true value of whatever is measured.

• Precision
– measure of how close a series of measurements are
to one another.
Evaluating measurements
• Accuracy vs. Precision
Evaluating measurements
• Michael buys several bags of balloons. On the
package, it says that each bag has 100
balloons. He opens the bags and only one of
them has 100 balloons inside; the other bags
either have too many or too few.
• How would you describe the bag of balloons
with 100 balloons inside?
Accurate, but not precise
• This bag is accurate because it
provided the correct number of
balloons, however, the process is
not precise as the results were
clearly not repeatable.
Accuracy deals with how close the measurement
got to the accepted measurement. Precision deals
with how consistent the measurement is. The bag
with 100 balloons inside matched the claim made
on the bag, meaning it was accurate. It was not
precise because the other measures show that the
number of balloons is variable.
Michael's scale measures the
mass of objects as
consistently 2kg less than their
actual mass. How would you
describe the scale?
It is precise, but not accurate
Precision measures is how consistently a device
records the same answer. In this case, Michael's
scale is ALWAYS 2kg short. Even though it
displays the wrong value, it is consistent. That
means it is precise.

Measuring a 10kg object will always display a


mass of 8kg; the results are easily reproduced.
Accuracy is how well a device measures
something against its accepted value. In this
case, Michael's scale is not accurate because it is
always off by 2kg.
A brand of fruit snacks claims that each bag of
fruit snacks has a mass of 25.5g. After weighing
three bags, Wally observes the masses to be 25.5g,
25.6g, and 26.1g.

How can Wally describe the accuracy and


precision of the first bag he measured?
Precise, but not accurate

Accurate and precise

Neither accurate nor precise

There are insufficient data points to draw a


conclusion

Accurate, but not precise


Answer
Accurate, but not precise

The claim on the first bag is not precise, as the


results are not replicated universally throughout
the experiment. The masses of the bags fluctuate,
with the average of all three bags equal to 25.7g.
Evaluating measurements
• Often, we are experimentally determining a
value in the lab that is already known.
– When we do this, we must calculate error in order to
see how accurate and precise our results are

• In lab reports, you will be required to determine


your error and percent error.
Evaluating measurements
• To determine Error:
– The accepted value is the correct value based on
reliable references.
– The experimental value is the value measured in the
lab.
– The difference between the experimental value and
the accepted value is called the error.
–.
Evaluating measurements
• To determine Percent Error:
– The percent error is the absolute value of the error
divided by the accepted value, multiplied by 100%.
–.
Practice: error and percent error
Question 1
• The accepted value for the boiling point of water
is 100.0°C. In the lab, you experimentally
determined it to be 98.7°C. What is the error
and percent error?
Practice: error and percent error
Answer 1
• Given
– Accepted value = 100.0°C
– Experimental value = 98.7°C
• Work
– .
– Error = 98.7°C - 100.0°C = -1.3°C
– .
Answer

• 1.3 %
A boy measured the area of a rectangle plot to be
468 cm2. But the actual area of the plot has been
recorded as 470 cm2. Calculate the percent error
of his measurement.
• Given,
• Measured area value = 468 cm2
• Actual area value = 470 cm2
Percent Error

0.42%
A person started a new business on 1st January.
Based on the demand in that particular area, he
expected a certain number of customers who can
visit his shop per month. The following table gives
the information on the number of visitors for the
shop during the first quarter.
• Mean percent error =
(11.11% + 20% + 5%)/ 3

= 36.11%/3

• =12.0367% (approx)

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