Instrument and measurement

Presentation

Student notes by group two

No. Name of member group Id. No.
1 ELIAS SISAY 299/09
2 MERON ALEMAYEHU 594/09
3 GEMECHU GADISA 393/09
4 GEMECHU GETACHEW 394/09
5 ENDALKACHEW GIZAW 316/09
6 FUAD MUSEMA 376/09
Out line
 Students will understand after this presentation
Definition of error and types of error
Definition of standard error
Error propagation
 how to analyze data
 INTRODUCTION
Uncertainty is expressive of the range of Variation of
the indicated value from the true value. Error and
Uncertainty all that any experimental procedure can
do is to give a value for the result that we can say may
be near the true value. Statement of uncertainty
signifies the quality of the measuring instrument and
hence its accuracy, it is incumbent on the part of every
instrumentation engineer to express the uncertainty
attendant on each measured value.
 Source of error
Observer - unpredictable
Method of measurement - unreliable experimental
procedure
 Instrument
(a)may be faulty, unreliable
(b) out of adjustment, not zeroed
Object to be measured - non uniform thickness edges
not well defined
A measurement cannot be made without errors. These
Error in measurement
errors can only be minimized but not eliminated
completely. It is important to find out the accuracy of
measurement and how different errors have entered in to
the measurement. Before that it is essential to know the
different errors that can possibly enter in to the
measurement.
Classification of errors
1. Gross errors
2. Systematic errors
3. Random errors
Continued
1. Gross errors
This type of errors mainly covers human mistakes in reading
the instruments (misreading the instruments) making
adjustments (incorrect adjustments) and application of
instruments (improper application).
2. Systematic errors
Systematic, “errors are due to 'shortcomings of the
instrumented changes in external conditions affecting the
measurement. A systematic error is one associated with a
particular measuring instrument or experimental technique.
 These types of errors are divided in to three' categories:
Continued
 These types of errors are divided in to three' categories:
(i) Instrumental errors
(ii) Environmental errors
(iii) Observational errors
(i) Instrumental errors
These errors are inherent in instruments because of their
mechanical structure. They may be due to construction,
calibration or operation of the instruments or measuring
devices.
Continued
(ii) Environmental errors
Environmental errors are due to changes in the environmental
conditions . Such as temperature; humidity, pressure,
electrostatic and magnetic fields. For eg., the resistance of a
strain gauge changes with variation in temperature.
(iii)Observational errors
The observational error may be caused due to parallax. For eg.,
the pointer of a voltmeter rests slightly above the surface of
the scale. Thus an error on account of parallax will occur
unless the line of vision of the observer is exactly above the
pointer. This may be minimized by mirrored scales in the
meters.
Random error
The random error in experimental results is due to
lack of observer precision, perhaps in misreading an
analogue scale due to parallax. This will result in a
spread of results, even in the most carefully designed
of experiments.
Random errors are unpredictable errors and occur
even when all systematic errors arc accounted for,
although the instrument is used under controlled
environment and accurately pre-calibrated before
measurement.
 What Is the Standard Error?
The standard error is the approximate standard deviation
of a statistical sample population. The standard error is a
statistical term that measures the accuracy with which a
sample represents a population. In statistics, a sample
means deviates from the actual mean of a population; this
deviation is the standard error. The standard error (SE) of a
statistic (usually an estimate of a parameter) is the standard
deviation of its sampling distribution or an estimate of that
standard deviation. If the parameter or the statistic is the
mean, it is called the standard error of the mean (SEM).
Continued

In
  regression analysis, the term "standard error" refers either
to the square root of the reduced chi-squared statistic or the
standard error for a particular regression coefficient.
Standard error of the mean
The standard error of the mean (SEM) can be expressed as:

Where
Is the standard deviation of the population,
n is the size (number of observations) of the sample.
Continued
The standard deviation of the sample mean is
equivalent to the standard deviation of the error in the
sample mean with respect to the true mean, since the
sample mean is an unbiased estimator. Therefore, the
standard error of the mean can also be understood as
the standard deviation of the error in the sample mean
with respect to the true mean (or an estimate of that
statistic).
Error propagation
A term that refers to the way in which, at a given stage of a
calculation, part of the error arises out of the error at a
previous stage. This is independent of the further round off
errors inevitably introduced between the two stages.
Unfavorable error propagation can seriously affect the results
of a calculation. The investigation of error propagation in
simple arithmetical operations is used as the basis for the
detailed analysis of more extensive calculations. The way in
which uncertainties in the data propagate into the final
results of a calculation can be assessed in practice by
repeating the calculation with slightly perturbed data.
Continued
Error propagation in one variable Suppose that x is the result of
a measurement and we are calculating a dependent quantity
y = f(x)
Knowing ∆x, we must derive ∆y, the associated error or
uncertainty of y. Let us recall the equation for the tangent line to
f at point x,
(x + ∆x) = f(x) + f’(x) ∆x
 We use the tangent line equation as a (linear) approximation to
f; when ∆x is not too large; we expect this approximation to be
good. Thus,
∆y = f(x + ∆x) − f(x) ≈ l(x + ∆x) − f(x) = f (x) ∆x
Continued
If we think of ∆x as a positive number which
specifies the (expected) magnitude of error, we
shall write the error propagation formula in the
form
∆y ≈ |f(x)|∆x
 Data analysis and reporting
The analysis of the measurement data is necessary to obtain
the probable true value of the measured quantity. Any
measurement is associated with a certain amount of
uncertainty.
Data analysis is a process of inspecting, cleansing,
transforming, and modeling data with the goal of discovering
useful information, informing conclusions, and supporting
decision-making. The best method of analysis is the
statistical method. The process of data analysis can be
varying from the book to the book so best method of analysis
as follows.
 1. Organizing data
Organize all forms of value of measurement through
different trial. Remove those that are in-complete or
do not make sense.
2. Enter your data
By hand
Quantitative analysis (statistical)
By computer
excel (spreadsheet)
Microsoft access (database)
Mean

The
  value we get by adding the measurement value and
divide it by its no of readings.

Where; Arithmetic mean

-Readings or varieties or samples.
n- Number of readings
Median
Median is also used to indicate the most probable value of the
measured quantity when a set of readings are taken. When the
readings arc arranged in the ascending or descending order of
magnitude, the middle value of the set is taken as the median.
  Standard deviation
S.D=
Where as

X-is mean
3. Interpreting the data
Interpreting is the process of attaching meaning to
the data. The interpretation of data consists what did
you understand from measurement?
What was expected and what goes new?
Continued
4. Discussion
Try to answer in the interpretation part and
observation.
Reporting data of measurement
When a measured value y is reported, its uncertainty
should always be stated. The laboratory may report
either the combined standard uncertainty uc(y) or
the expanded uncertainty U. The measured value, y,
and its expanded uncertainty, U, may be reported in
the format y – U or y + U.
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