MeasurementLab(PercentError)

AdrianneSantaRomana
October14,2014
Mr.Vetter


I.PURPOSE
Thepurposeofthelabwastointroduceustowhatpercenterrorisandhowtocalculateit.

II.EQUIPMENT
Rulers
DigitalScale
Calculator
MaskingTape
Pencil
3HolePunch
Stopwatch

III.PROCEDURE

Tostartoffthelabwehadtoknowwhatpercenterrorwas.Itiswhereyoufindoutthe
percentageofhowfaroffyourestimatevaluewasfromtheactualvalue.Forthelab,weusedthe
metricsystem,suchas:grams,meters,centimeters,etc...
1. Ourfirstcalculationwasthemass,ingrams,ofa3holepunch.
a. Note:1g=1paperclip
i.
The3holepunchwaspassedaroundtheclassroomandonebyoneeach
studentheldthetangibleobject.
ii.
EachindividualhadtowritedownanExperimentalmass,aguessofwhatthe3
holepunchingrams.
iii.
Tofindtheactualmassofthe3holepunchwetookadigitalscaleand
measuredit.
iv.
Thenweusedaformulatofindourpercenterror.
v.
Lastly,eachtablehadtofindtheirtableaveragepercenterror.
2. Afterthemasscalculations,wemovedontotime.
a. Note:Therewasnoclockintheroom.
i.
Theroomwascompletelysilentbeforewebeganthissectionofthelab.This
wastohelpeachindividualfocus.
ii.
Ourteacherstartedastopwatch.
1. Note:Hewastheonlyonewhoknewthetime
iii.
Aftersittingthereforaperiodoftime,nottalking,ourteachersaidstop.
iv.
Wemadeourpredictionsonwhattimethetimewas,whenwesatinsilence.
v.
Aftereveryonemadetheirpredictions,weweregiventheactualtime.
vi.
Wefinishedoffthispartofthelabwithfindingeachstudentspercenterrorand
eachtablesaveragepercenterror.
3. Toconcludeourlab,wehadtofindthedistance.
a. Note:MetricSystem
i.
Oneachtabletherewasastripofmaskingtapewithalineonit.
ii.
Wehadtoguesswhatthedistancewasofthatline,incentimeters.

iii.
iv.

Arulerwasgiventous,thistoolhelpedusfindtheactualdistance.
Justliketheothersections,wecalculatedourownpercenterrorandfoundour
tablesaveragepercenterror.
4. Forthelabweusedthetablebelowtorecordthedataforeachsection.
a. Dependingonhowmanysitatyourtable,thatshowmanycolumnsyoulluse.

YourTrial

TableTrial

TableTrial

TableTrial

Experimental

Actual

IV.DATA

I.
MassCalculations

MyTrial

KalebsTrial

Experimental

165g

250g

Actual

416g

416g

MyTrial

KalebsTrial

Experimental

00:00:40

00:00:37

Actual

00:00:47.2

00:00:47.2

MyTrial

KalebsTrial

Experimental

20cm

12cm

Actual

15.5cm

15.5cm

II.

TimeCalculations

III.

Distance

V.ANALYSIS

Tohelpusfindpercenterrorweusedtheformulabelow:

P ercent Error = ||

Experimental value theoretical value |

theoretical value
|

100

1.

MassCalculations

2.

TimeCalculations

3.

Distance

VI.CONCLUSION

Fromthelab,Iwasabletolearnwhatpercenterrorisandhowtocalculateit.Itiswhereyou
findoutthepercentageofhowfaroffyourestimatevaluewasfromtheactualvalue.Ifthepercent
errorwascloserto0%thentheExperimentalvaluewasclosertotheActual(Theoretical)Value.