INORGANIC AND ORGANIC CHEMISTRY (LAB)

ACCURACY, PRECISION, AND ERRORS IN MEASUREMENTS

Accuracy

 a measure of how close a measurement comes to the actual or true value of whatever
is measured.

 true value
Precision

 a measure of how close a series of measurements are one to one another, irrespective
of the actual value
- comparison of repeated measurements
DETERMINING ERROR
1. Accepted value
- the correct value for the measurement based on reliable references
2. Experimental value
- value measured in the laboratory
Error

 the difference between experimental value and accepted value

Error = experimental value – accepted value

 the percent error of a measurement is the absolute value of the error divided by the
accepted value multiplied by 100%
| 𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟|
%error = x 100%
𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑒𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒

 acceptable error is +/- 5%

 values from -5% up to 5% are acceptable
 values less than -5% or greater than 5% must be remeasured
Are precise measurements always accurate?
No, it depends on the actual value being presented.
SIGNIFICANT FIGURES

 checking measurements for precision

 precision of a measurement is the smallest possible unit that could be measured

 all digits that are measured are significant

ERRORS IN MEASUREMENT
occur because of:

 Parallax error

 Zero error – failure to put to zero first before measurement

 damage or faulty device

 limit of reading of the measurement device

TYPES OF ERROR
1. Gross error
- “illegitimate error”
- cover human mistakes in reading instruments, recording and calculating
measurement results
- blunders resulting from mistake in procedure
- computational or calculational errors after the experiment
2. Systematic error
- “bias error”
- offset error  remains throughout the measurement
- reduced through calibration
- faulty equipment  equipment always reads 3% high
- observer bias  constant failure to read accurately
- this error cannot be evaluated directly from the data but can be determined by
comparison to theory or other experiments
Major Crossmatching: 50mL Patient’s Serum + 25mL Donor Red Cells
Minor Crossmatching: 25mL Patient’s Red Cell + 50mL Donor’s Serum
Patient Control: 25mL Patient’s Red Cell+ 50mL Patient’s Serum
Classified into 3 categories
o Instrumental errors
- inherent shortcoming in the instrument (i.e. parallax error all throughout)
- due to misuse of the instruments
- due to loading effects of the instruments
o Environmental errors
- due to the conditions external to the measuring device
 - these may be effects of:
 temperature  ideal temp. for machines is 16-24°C
 pressure
 humidity
 dust
 vibrations or of external magnetic or electrostatic fields
o Observational errors
- Parallax error
- inaccurate estimate of average reading
- wrong scale reading and wrong recording the data
- incorrect conversion of units between consecutive reading
3. Random Error
- “stochastic/precision error”
- error that causes readings to take random-like values about the mean value
- effects of uncontrolled variables
- variations of procedure
USE OF STATISTICS TO ESTIMATE RANDOM UNCERTAINTY
Mean: sum of measurement values divided by the number of measurement
= mean xi = observation n = total number of data items
Deviation: difference between a single result and mean of many result
Standard deviation: smaller SD would imply more precise data