Jose Rizal Institute

Parang Parang, Orani, Bataan

Tel # : PLDT- (047) 638 -1210
Globe - 0917 - 636 - 9180 , TNT - 0912 - 647 - 6806

Estimate error using variance

After going through this module, you are expected to:

1. Estimate errors from multiple measurements of a physical quantity using variance;

and;
2. Calculate standard deviation and percentage error

PRE TEST:

Choose the letter of the best answer.

1. Evaluate the percentage error of the following measurement:

True Value = 89.49 km
Trial 1 = 85.44 km
Trial 2 = 82.56 km
Trial 3 = 84.49 km
Trial 4 = 81.45 km
a. 3.16% c. 6.71%
b. 5.26% d. 7.02%

2. What is the sample standard deviation from the data given 12, 13, 29, 18, 61, 35, 21?
a. 15.87 b. 17.14 c. 41.98 d. 293.67
3. If a number is added to a set that is far away from the mean how does this affect
standard deviation?
a. increase c. stay the same
b. decrease d. both increase & decrease

For numbers 4-5.

The density of silver is 13.35 g/cm3. Experimental results gave the following data:
16.45 g/cm3
10.56 g/cm3
12.75 g/cm3
15.35 g/cm3
4. The experimental value is_____ g/cm3.
a. 11.45 c. 13.78
 b. 12.26 d. 14.16

5. The percentage error of the measurement is

a. 1% c. 3%
b. 2% d. 4%

6. Alec measured the width and height of a rectangle, but was only able to measure them
to the nearest centimeter. He recorded the width as 8 cm and the height as 5 cm. Which
of the following is true for the area A cm2 of the rectangle?
a. 40 c. 33.75  A  46.75
b. 39.5  A  40.5 d. 33.75  A  46.75

7. Benny measured the width and height of a rectangle, but was only able to measure
them to the nearest foot. He recorded the width as 12 feet and the height as 5 feet. Which
of the following is true for the area A ft2 of the rectangle?
a. 51.75  A  68.75 c. A = 60
b. 51.75  A  68.75 d. 59.5  A  60.5

8. Olivia measured the length and width of a rectangular garden, each to the nearest 0.1
yd. She recorded the length of the garden as 41.5 yds. and the width of the garden as 30.8
yds. Which of the following is true for the area A yds2 of the garden?
a. 1274.5875  A  1281.75 c. 1274.5875  A  1281.75
b. 1278.15  A  1278.25 d. 1278.2

9. Garth wanted to find the area of a square. He measured the length of the square as 2
cm. Later, the actual length of the square was more accurately measured as 2.1 cm. What
is the relative error in his area calculation to the nearest hundredth?
a. .01 c. .09
b. .08 d. 0.10

10. Kyle wanted to find the area of a circle. He measured the radius of the circle as 5.4
cm. Later, the actual radius of the circle was more accurately measured as 5.35 cm. What
is the relative error in his area calculation to the nearest thousandth?
a. .018 c. .020
b. .019 d. .022
 Estimate Error Using Variance
Absolute, Relative and Percentage Error
The Absolute Error is the difference between the actual and measured value.

But ... when measuring we don't know the actual value! So we use the maximum possible error.

In the example above the Absolute Error is 0.05 m

What happened to the ± ...? Well, we just want the size (the absolute value) of the difference.

The Relative Error is the Absolute Error divided by the actual measurement.

We don't know the actual measurement, so the best we can do is use the measured value:

Relative Error = Absolute Error Measured Value

The Percentage Error is the Relative Error shown as a percentage.

EXAMPLES:

Example: a fence is measured as 12.5 meters long, accurate to 0.1 of a meter

Length = 12.5 ±0.05 m

So:

Absolute Error = 0.05 m

And:

Relative Error = 0.05 m 12.5 m = 0.004

And:

Percentage Error = 0.4%

Example: The thermometer measures to the nearest 2 degrees. The temperature was
measured as 38° C

The temperature could be up to 1° either side of 38° (i.e. between 37° and 39°)
Temperature = 38 ±1°

So:

Absolute Error = 1°

And:

Relative Error = 1°38° = 0.0263...

And:

Percentage Error = 2.63...%

Estimating Uncertainty in Repeated Measurements

Suppose you time the period of oscillation of a pendulum using a digital instrument (that you assume
is measuring accurately) and find: T = 0.44 seconds. This single measurement of the period suggests
a precision of ±0.005 s, but this instrument precision may not give a complete sense of the
uncertainty. If you repeat the measurement several times and examine the variation among the
measured values, you can get a better idea of the uncertainty in the period. For example, here are the
results of 5 measurements, in seconds: 0.46, 0.44, 0.45, 0.44, 0.41.( 5 )

x 1 + x2 + + x N
Average (mean) =
N
For this situation, the best estimate of the period is the average, or mean.
Whenever possible, repeat a measurement several times and average the results. This average is
generally the best estimate of the "true" value (unless the data set is skewed by one or
more outliers which should be examined to determine if they are bad data points that should be
omitted from the average or valid measurements that require further investigation). Generally, the
more repetitions you make of a measurement, the better this estimate will be, but be careful to avoid
wasting time taking more measurements than is necessary for the precision required.
Consider, as another example, the measurement of the width of a piece of paper using a meter stick.
Being careful to keep the meter stick parallel to the edge of the paper (to avoid a systematic error
which would cause the measured value to be consistently higher than the correct value), the width of
the paper is measured at a number of points on the sheet, and the values obtained are entered in a
data table. Note that the last digit is only a rough estimate, since it is difficult to read a meter stick

to the nearest tenth of a millimeter (0.01 cm).

sum of observed widths 155.96 cm

Average = 31.19 cm
no. of observations 5

This average is the best available estimate of the width of the piece of paper, but it is certainly not
exact. We would have to average an infinite number of measurements to approach the true mean
value, and even then, we are not guaranteed that the mean value is accurate because there is
still some systematic error from the measuring tool, which can never be calibrated perfectly. So how
do we express the uncertainty in our average value? One way to express the variation among the
measurements is to use the average deviation. This statistic tells us on average (with 50% confidence)
how much the individual measurements vary from the mean.

d= |x1 − x| + |x2 − x| + + |xN − x|

N

However, the standard deviation is the most common way to characterize the spread of a data set.
The standard deviation is always slightly greater than the average deviation, and is used because of
its association with the normal distribution that is frequently encountered in statistical analyses.

STANDARD DEVIATION

To calculate the standard deviation for a sample of N measurement:

1 Sum all the measurements and divide by N to get the average, or mean.

2 Now, subtract this average from each of the N measurements to obtain N "deviations".

3. Square each of these N deviations and add them all up.

4 Divide this result by (N − 1) and take the square root. We can write out the formula for the
standard deviation as follows. Let the N measurements be called x1, x2, ..., xN. Let the average of
the N values be called x.

Then each deviation is given by δxi = xi − x, for i = 1, 2, , N.

The standard deviation is:

(δx12 + δx22 + + δxN2)

(N − 1)

In our previous example, the average width x is 31.19 cm. The deviations are:
The average deviation is: d = 0.086 cm.
The standard deviation is:
s= (0.14)2 + (0.04)2 + (0.07)2 + (0.17)2 + (0.01)2
5−1

= 0.12 cm.

The significance of the standard deviation is this: if you now make one more measurement using
the same meter stick, you can reasonably expect (with about 68% confidence) that the new
 measurement will be within 0.12 cm of the estimated average of 31.19 cm. In fact, it is reasonable
to use the standard deviation as the uncertainty associated with this single new measurement.
However, the uncertainty of the average value is the standard deviation of the mean, which is
always less than the standard deviation (see next section). Consider an example where 100
measurements of a quantity were made. The average or mean value was 10.5 and the standard
deviation was s = 1.83. The figure below is a histogram of the 100 measurements, which shows
how often a certain range of values was measured. For example, in 20 of the measurements, the
value was in the range 9.5 to 10.5, and most of the readings were close to the mean value of 10.5.
The standard deviation s for this set of measurements is roughly how far from the average
value most of the readings fell. For a large enough sample, approximately 68% of the readings will
be within one standard deviation of the mean value, 95% of the readings will be in the interval x ±
2 s, and nearly all (99.7%) of readings will lie within 3 standard deviations from the mean. The
smooth curve superimposed on the histogram is the Gaussian or normal distribution predicted
by theory for measurements involving random errors. As more and more measurements are made,
the histogram will more closely follow the bell-shaped Gaussian curve, but the standard deviation
of the distribution will remain approximately the same.

What’s More!!!

Calculate the average and standard deviation of the given width of paper. Enter your calculated
deviation per observation on Column 3.

Observation Width (cm) Deviations (cm)

1 31.33

2 31.15

3 31.26

4 31.02

5 31.20

Average: ___________

Standard Deviation: ______________

Computation: ______________

Interpretation: ____________

SUMMARY:
1. The accepted value of a measurement is the true or correct value based on general agreement
with a reliable reference.

2. The experimental value of a measurement is the value that is measured during the experiment.

3. The error of an experiment is the difference between the experimental and accepted values.

Error = experimental value − accepted value

4. The percent error is the absolute value of the error divided by the accepted value and multiplied
by 100%.

% Error=|experimental value − accepted value | accepted value×100%

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES:

Determine the accepted value, experimental value of your food intake in a day I terms of calories.
Calculate the percentage error.

Meal Accepted Value Experimental

Value

Breakfast

Snack

Lunch

Snack

Dinner

Calculate the average mean and standard deviation of calories in a week.

Day Mean Standard

Deviation

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday
Sunday

Average