Accuracyprecisionerror Notes
Accuracyprecisionerror Notes
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.
• 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)