ME 306 Chapter 2.

CHARACTERISTICS OF INSTRUMENTS

Precision

■ Precision refers to the degree of closeness within a group of measurements. It is

usually expressed in terms of the degree of deviation and scattering in the measured

values.

■ A high precision(precise) instrument gives a small spread of readings if repeated

readings are taken for the same quantity.

■ A low precision (imprecise) instrument gives a large spread of readings if repeated

readings are taken for the same quantity.

■ Precision is often confused with accuracy. Accuracy is how close a given set of

measurements are to their true value, while precision is how close the measurements

are to each other.

■ Accuracy is due to the static error; however, precision is due to the random errors.

■ High precision does not imply anything about measurement accuracy. A high precision

instrument may have a low accuracy and a high accuracy instrument may have a low

precision.

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 ME 306 Chapter 2. CHARACTERISTICS OF INSTRUMENTS

■ Precision is related to deviation and standard deviation of the sample of the measured

values; however, accuracy is determined from the average measured value, 𝑉𝑚,𝑎𝑣 .

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 ME 306 Chapter 2. CHARACTERISTICS OF INSTRUMENTS

■ Example: if you take the measurement of the mass of a body of 20 kg and you get

17.4,17,17.3 and 17.1, your weighing scale is precise but not very accurate. If your scale

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 ME 306 Chapter 2. CHARACTERISTICS OF INSTRUMENTS

gives you values of 19.8, 20.5, 21.0, and 19.6, it is more accurate than the first balance

but not very precise.

■ The following two terms are related to the Precision of an instrument:

• Repeatability, and

• Reproducibility.

• Repeatability describes the precision of an instrument (i.e., closeness of output

readings or the spread of output readings) when the same input is applied

repetitively over a short period of time, with the same measurement

conditions, same instrument, same observer, same location, and same

conditions of use maintained throughout. The precision with which a given

input can be measured over and over again is called repeatability .

• Reproducibility describes the precision of an instrument (i.e., closeness of

output readings or the spread of output readings) for the same input when

there are changes in the method of measurement, observer, location,

conditions of use and time of measurement. The precision with which the same

value of a variable may be measured at different times is called reproducibility.

■ The precision of an instrument is expressed in terms of the average deviation of the

measurements. The following example shows how to calculate the precision and

accuracy of measurements.

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 ME 306 Chapter 2. CHARACTERISTICS OF INSTRUMENTS

Example (1)

In measurement of a product length, the following data is obtained:

No. 1 2 3 4
Length (m) 5 5.2 4.6 5.4

If the true value of the length is known to be 4.2 m, determine:

(a) the average measured value

(b) the static error
(c) the measurement accuracy as a percent of the true value
(d) the absolute deviation of the measurements
(e) the precision of the measurements

Solution

(a) the average measured value

𝑠𝑢𝑚 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 5 + 5.2 + 4.6 + 5.4

𝑉𝑚,𝑎𝑣 = = = 5.05 𝑚
𝑛𝑢𝑏𝑚𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 4

(b) the static error

𝐸𝑠 = 𝑉𝑚,𝑎𝑣 − 𝑉𝑇 = 5.05 − 4.2 = +0.85 𝑚

(c) the measurement accuracy as a percent of the true value

𝐸𝑠 + 0.85
% 𝐸𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟 = × 100 = × 100 = +20.2 % 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑒 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒
𝑉𝑇 4.2
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 ME 306 Chapter 2. CHARACTERISTICS OF INSTRUMENTS

(d) the absolute deviation of the measurements

Absolute deviation = |measured value - average measured value|

absolute deviation = |𝑉𝑚 − 𝑉𝑚,𝑎𝑣 |

No. 1 2 3 4
𝑉𝑚 5 5.2 4.6 5.4
absolute
|5.0-5.05| = 0.05 |5.2-5.05|= 0.15 |4.6-5.05| = 0.45 |5.4-5.05| = 0.35
deviation

(e) the precision of the measurements

Precision of an instrument is expressed in terms of the average deviation of the

measurements.

The average deviation of the measurements is given by,

Average deviation = ± (sum of absolute deviations / number of measurements)

= ± (0.05 + 0.15 + 0.45 +0.35)/4 = ±0.25

The precision of the instrument is 5.05±0.25, which means the data is precise within a
range of ±0.25.

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