Review

on measuring
Instrument
 1-Electrical and Electronic Instruments:

• What is the difference between

Electrical instrument and
Electronic instrument?
• Simply Electronic instrument is
• An Electrical instrument with amplifiers
to increase the sensitivity
2- Analogue and Digital Instruments:
3- Absolute and Secondary Instruments
•In absolute instrument the
measured value is given
• in term of absolute quantities
•(length, mass, time).
•These require calculations
 The secondary instruments
•gives measured quantity
• directly
•without any calculations.
Classification of Secondary Instruments
• a) Indicating Instruments
• b) Recording Instruments
• c) Integrating Instruments
a)Indicating Instruments
 a)Indicating Instruments
• The measured quantity is
obtain by
• deflection the pointer on scale,
• the output is indicate either in
• analogue or digital form
 b) Recording Instruments
• recording instruments like
• X-Y plotter and oscilloscope
c) Integrating Instruments
 c) Integrating Instruments
• Measures total amount of
• quantity of electricity (ampere-hour)
• or
•electrical energy (KWH).
Errors in Measurement
•Measuring instruments
are not exact!
Why?
 Types of Errors
Systematic Errors Random Errors

Poor accuracy Poor precision

Definite causes Nonspecific causes
Reproducible Not reproducible
1- Systematic Error Causes
• Constructional errors.

• Imperfection of the
measurement method.

• Observational error.
1- Systematic Error Causes
•Constructional errors
Due to
inherent shortcoming
in the instrument
 1- Systematic Error Causes
• Imperfection of the measurement
method.
 1- Systematic Error Causes
• Observational errors
• Vision is not normal to the scale.
• Wrong reading.
• Incorrect conversion of units.
• Inaccurate reading estimation.
1- Systematic Errors Correction
• It is impossible to eliminate
these types of errors, but
• it is possible
• to correct these errors
• by using correction factor.
 2- Random Errors:
• These errors are due to external
influences beyond the control of
the operator such as:
• Change in temperature, pressure,
• Stray electric and magnetic fields.
 2- Random Errors Correction:
These errors is minimized by
• measuring the given quantity
many times under the same
conditions
• and calculating the average of
the measured values.
Measurement Errors
calculations
 Absolute Error
• It is simply the difference between the
measured value and the true value.

• Absolute Correction:
• It is the correction to be added to the
measured value to give the true value
 Absolute Error
• Absolute errors do not give an indication of
how important the error is.
• If the absolute error is 1 cm when measuring

absolute error absolute error

is irrelevant is significant
 Relative Error
• It is the ratio of the absolute error of the
measurement to the true value.

Percent of Error:
It is found by multiplying the relative error by 100%.

which is considered to be a measure of accuracy

Range of Uncertainty

tolerance

tolerance
 Range of Uncertainty
Range of uncertainty is reported as
120 mm ±1 mm = 119 mm to 121 mm

nominal value tolerance range of uncertainty

 Notes on limiting Error
•Limiting Error is the specification given
to an instrument which guarantees
that a full scale deflection will be
within a certain percentage of a full-
scale reading.
 E.g manufacturer may specify the

instrument to be accurate
at 2 % with full scale deflection.
 Composite Error

What is the total voltage error if

V1 , V2 and V3
Have error e1,e2,and e3

What is the power (V*I) error and

Resistance (V/I) error if
Voltmeter has error e1 and
ammeter has error e2
 Composite Error Calculations

Composite Error of
Addition & Subtraction
The rule is
add the absolute errors
 Examples
Add N1 = 826 ± 5 to N2 = 628 ± 3
Solution Sum = 1454 ± 8
The worst possible combination of
range of doubt should be taken in
the answer.
 Composite Error of
Multiplication & Division

The rule is
add the percentage errors
 Example
Calculate the limiting error in the
voltage across the shown resistor

V=I * R

• the limiting error in the voltage is

+(0.5 % + 0.2 %)