2.

ERRORS IN
MEASUREMENTS

28/02/2023
Lecturer: noelia.martinezrey@anu.edu.au
2 ANU RESEARCH SCHOOL OF PHYSICS | PHYS3711/6711 – LECTURE 2 28 FEB 23
00 LECTURE OUTLINE

• THE IMPORTANCE OF ERRORS

• TYPE OF ERRORS
• RANDOM UNCERTAINTY – STATISTICS ESTIMATION
• ESTIMATING READING ERRORS
• ERRORS IN FORMULAE
• RANDOM + SYSTEMATIC ERRORS

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01 THE IMPORTANCE OF
ERRORS
Two measurements of body temperature before and after a drug is administered:
38.2°C and 38.4°C

Is temperature rise significant?

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01 THE IMPORTANCE OF
ERRORS
Two measurements of body temperature before and after a drug is administered:
38.2°C and 38.4°C

Is temperature rise significant?

It depends on the associated errors:

(38.2±0.01)°C and (38.4 ±0.01)°C – significant

(38.2±0.5)°C and (38.4 ±0.5)°C – not significant

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02 TYPE OF ERRORS
• Illegitimate errors
– Blunders resulting from mistakes in procedure. You must be careful.
– Computational or calculational errors after the experiment.

• Bias or Systematic errors

– An offset error; one that remains with repeated measurements.
Systematic errors can be reduced through calibration
Faulty equipment--such as an instrument which always reads 3% high
Consistent or recurring human errors-- observer bias

– This type of error cannot be evaluated directly from the data but can be
determined by comparison to theory or other experiments.

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02 TYPE OF ERRORS
• Random, Stochastic or Precision errors:
–  An error that causes readings to take random-like values about the mean
value.
Effects of uncontrolled variables
Variations of procedure

–  The concepts of probability and statistics are used to study random

errors. When we think of random errors we also think of repeatability or
precision.

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02 TYPE OF ERRORS
SYSTEMATIC ERRORS

• Constant throughout a set of readings.

• May result from equipment which is incorrectly calibrated or how
measurements are performed.
• Cause average (mean) of measured values to depart from correct value.
• Difficult to spot presence of systematic errors in an experiment.
• As a rule, the act of measuring affects the system being measured.

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02 TYPE OF ERRORS
RANDOM ERRORS
• An error that varies between successive measurements
• Equally likely to be positive or negative
• Always present in an experiment
• Presence obvious from distribution of values obtained
• Can be minimised by performing multiple measurements of the same quantity
or by measuring one quantity as function of second quantity and performing a
straight line fit of the data
• Sometimes referred to as reading errors

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02 TYPE OF ERRORS

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03 RANDOM UNCERTAINTY –
STATISTICS ESTIMATION
Mean: the sum of measurement values divided
by the number of measurements.

Deviation: the difference between a single

result and the mean of many results.

Large
Standard Deviation: the smaller the sample size
standard deviation the more precise the data
Small
sample size
(n<30)

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03 RANDOM UNCERTAINTY –
STATISTICS ESTIMATION
Population: The collection of all items Sample: a portion of (or limited number
(measurements) of the group. Represented by a of items in) a population.
large number of measurements.

Example: Gaussian distribution

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04 ESTIMATING READING
ERRORS In this oscilloscope measurement,
estimate the measured value and the
error in the measurement.
1 V/division

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04 ESTIMATING READING
ERRORS
Measurement error in this
digital voltmeter??

Digital meter – error taken as ±5 in

next significant figure

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04 ESTIMATING READING
ERRORS
Measurement error in this
analogue voltmeter??

Analogue meter – error related

to width of pointer

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05 ERRORS IN FORMULAE
• A, B, C and Z are the absolute values of a measurement
• ∆A, ∆B, ∆C and ∆Z are the absolute errors in A, B, C and Z
• Hence ∆A/A is the fractional error in A and (∆A/A)*100 is the
percentage of error in A
• ∆A and A will have the same units
• Assume errors in numerical or physical constants (e.g. π, e, c etc)
are much smaller than those in measured values – hence can be
ignored.

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05 ERRORS IN FORMULAE

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05 ERRORS IN FORMULAE
Calculate the error in the area
of a circle based on the error
on the value of its radius:

r = (5 ± 0.5) m
A=78.5398 m2

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05 ERRORS IN FORMULAE
Is the error on P going to be
± 0.2m?

L = (4 ± 0.2) m
W = (5 ± 0.2) m

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05 ERRORS IN FORMULAE
Estimate the error on the
period of a pendulum with
length l = (2.5 ± 0.1) m.

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06 RANDOM + SYSTEMATIC
ERRORS
Combine random error and systematic error (if known) by adding the squares of
the separate errors.

Example: A length is measured with a

reading (random error) given by (89±2) cm
using a rule of calibration accuracy 2%.

(Total fractional error)2 = (fractional reading error)2 + (systematic error)2

What is the absolute error?

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WHAT’S NEXT:
LECTURE 3: Wednesday 1/Mar 5pm -6pm

+ ASSIGNMENT due Fri 3/Mar

28/02/2023
Lecturer: noelia.martinezrey@anu.edu.au