Uncertainty

AND
Error Analysis
 LEARNING
OBJECTIVES
• Differentiate accuracy from precision
• Differentiate random errors from systematic errors
• Solve for estimated errors using percent error,
percent difference, and variance
• Express degree of uncertainty as absolute or
relative.
• Infer solutions on how to minimize errors in
measurement
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UNCERTAINTY
In measurement, there is always a
degree of uncertainty

Error
Deviation of a measured value
from the expected or true
value
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 UNCERTAINTY

measured value=(true value ± uncertainty )unit

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Why is there UNCERTAINTY?

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Accuracy VS Precision

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 Accuracy VS PrecisIon
Accuracy
 Closeness of the measured value to the
expected or true value

Precision
 How close or consistent the
measurements are to one another

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 Accuracy
Example:
Who is more accurate when measuring a book
that has a true length of 17.0 cm?
Susan:
17.0 cm, 16.0 cm, 18.0 cm, 15.0 cm

Amy:
15.5 cm, 15.0 cm, 15.2 cm, 15.3 cm
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 PRECISION
Example:
Who is more precise when measuring the same
17.0 cm book?
Susan:
17.0 cm, 16.0 cm, 18.0 cm, 15.0 cm

Amy:
15.5 cm, 15.0 cm, 15.2 cm, 15.3 cm

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Error
Deviation of a measured value from
the expected or true value
 What causes mistakes or errors
in measurement?

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 Random VS Systematic errors

Random Errors
 Unpredictable or inevitable
changes during measurement
 Affects the precision
 May be reduced by increasing
the number of trials and
averaging

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 Random VS Systematic errors

Systematic Errors
 Comes from measuring instrument or in
the design of the experiment itself
 It limits accuracy

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 Percent error and percent difference

Percent Error
 Usually calculated when there is an
expected value of a quantity

Where; = measured value

= true or accepted value
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 Percent error
Example:
A boy measured the area of a rectangle plot to
be 468 cm2. But the actual area of the plot has
been recorded as 470 cm2. Calculate the percent
error of his measurement.

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 Percent error and percent difference

Percent Difference
 Measures how far apart the different
measured values are from each other.

Where; = two measured values

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 Percent difference
Example:
The height of a tower is increased from
30ft to 50ft. Find the percentage
difference.

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 VARIANCE
Variance
 It measures the squared deviation of
each number in the set from the mean.

2
𝜎 =Σ ¿ ¿
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 VARIANCE
Example:
• During an experiment in a physics
laboratory class, a group of five
students was asked to measure the
period of a simple pendulum. Their
measurements were as follows:

2.3s, 2.4s, 2.2s, 2.5s, and 2.1s

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Steps in computing VARIANCE

1. Take the mean of the set of

measurements
Σ 𝑥
𝑥=
𝑁
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Steps in computing VARIANCE

2. Take the deviation of each

measurement from the mean

(𝑥−𝑥)

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 Steps in computing VARIANCE

3. Square each deviation

¿
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Steps in computing VARIANCE

4. Get the sum of the squares

of each deviation

Σ ( 𝑥 − 𝑥) 2

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 Steps in computing VARIANCE

5. Divide the sum of the squares

by the number of measurements in
the set
Σ(𝑥−𝑥 ¿
2

𝑁
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Steps in computing VARIANCE

In symbols,

2
𝜎 =Σ ¿ ¿
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 STANDARD DEVIATION
Standard deviation
 It is the square root of the
variance.
 It is a measure of how diverse or
spread out are a set of measurements
from their average.

𝜎 =√ Σ ¿ ¿ ¿ 26
 Absolute uncertainty
 Has the unit as the quantity itself
 Shows how large the error is

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 Relative uncertainty
 Also called percent uncertainty
 Dimensionless and is obtained by
dividing the absolute uncertainty by
the numerical or measured value.
 How large the error is in
relation to the true value

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Example:
 A chemist measured the time required
for a chemical reaction and found the
value to be 155 ± 0.21 hours.

 Absolute uncertainty = 0.21 hours

 Relative uncertainty = 0.135

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 Least count
 The smallest value that can be read
from any measuring device.

Least count = 1 mm

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 The measurement of the thickness of a
physics book is 5.2 cm, 5.3 cm, and
5.4 cm. The measurement was expressed
as
(5.2 ± 0.1) cm.

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a. What is the best estimate of the
thickness of the physics book?
b. What is the least count of the
measuring device?
c. What is the range of the values of
the thickness of the book?
d. Express the uncertainty of the
books.

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