FAKULTY OF SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

RT10303

CHEMISTRY FOR AGRICULTURE

DR. LUM MOK SAM

PRACTICAL 1

DETERMINATION OF ACCURACY, PRECISION AND PERCENTAGE ERROR OF VOLUMETRIC EQUIPMENT

Prepared by:

NOOR AMYRAH ALINA BT. MOHD AMERUL ‘ASRI BR20110034

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TITLE : DETERMINATION OF ACCURACY, PRECISION AND PERCENTAGE ERROR OF VOLUMETRIC
EQUIPMENT

OBJECTIVE
1. To practice using various types of volume measuring equipment.
2. To recognize the importance of accuracy and precision in scientific measurement.
3. To relate the reliability of experiment data to uncertainty and percent error.

INTRODUCTION
Accuracy and precision are very important factors when performing a lab experiment. These two
factors determine the quality of data in a lab. Precision is the process of having data that is close to
the expected value while accuracy is having a data that is close to the expected value but necessary
close together. The accuracy and precision can be vary between different types of equipment used in
lab.

Accuracy refers to how close the results obtained is to the ‘true’ value. Accuracy is a reflection of the
systematic error or bias associated with:-
a) Method of sub-sampling
b) Method of analysis
c) Instrumentation
d) Analyst
e) Laboratory

Precision can be defined as the closeness of agreement between results obtained by applying the
experimental procedure several times under prescribed conditions. The spread of results may be
caused many sources but precision relates to only to those sources that produce random fluctuation
is the analytical procedure. The spread of results is described quantitatively by the variance or
standard deviation.

Percent error refers to the difference between the theoretical value and the experimental value is
called the error

Error = theoretical error - experimental value

The absolute value of the error is used to calculate the percent error, also referred to as the relative
error of the measurements

% Error = error/theoretical value × 100

APPARATUS
1. Burette
2. Graduated pipette
3. Bottle top dispenser
4. Micropipette
5. Distilled water
6. Beaker (250ml)
7. Digital and analog scale

METHODOLOGY
Firstly, a 10 ml of water is dispense into a 250 ml beaker using a burette. Then, the addition of water
is weighed and recorded. Secondly, a 10 ml of water is determined the mass using the digital analog
scale. Then the graduated pipette, bottle top dispenser and micropipette is repeated the steps 1 to 3
times. The mean, percentage error and standard deviation of the masses of each device is calculated
using the formula () and a result is determined. The 95% confidence intervals of each of the masses is

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determined by the following formula (). Lastly, the mass of water is converted using the density given
(density=0.9960 g ml-1). The calculations were then recorded in table 1.1.

RESULTS

Device Reading of mass of water (g) Mean Standard Mean Percentage

1 2 3 mass (g) deviation volume error
(ml) (%)
1) Burette 9.50 9.32 9.61 9.48 0.12 9.52 5.2
2) Graduated 9.17 8.56 8.41 8.71 0.33 8.74 12.9
pipette
3) Bottle top 9.46 9.20 9.02 9.23 0.18 9.27 7.7
dispenser
4) Micropipette 9.83 9.91 9.97 9.90 0.06 9.94 1
Table 1.1
Calculation of the mean mass
(formula)
1) Burette

9.50+9.32+9.61

2) Graduated pipette

9.17+8.56+8.41

3) Bottle Top Dispenser

9.46+9.20+9.02

4) Micropipette

9.83+9.91+9.97

Calculation for standard deviation

(formula)

1) Burette
2) Graduated Pipette
3) Bottle Top Dispenser
4) Micropipette

Calculation for mean volume (ml)

(formula)
1) Burette
2) Graduated pipette
3) Bottle Top Dispenser
4) Micropipette

Calculation for percentage error(%)

(formula)
5) Burette
6) Graduated pipette
7) Bottle Top Dispenser
8) Micropipette

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DISCUSSION
Based on the experiment, repeated steps was taken and the data was collected.Then, the data was
calculated using the following formula to obtain the result that determine the accuracy, precision and
percentage error of the volumetric device. Below shown the repeated data on the volumetric
devices :-

DEVICE Reading of Mass of water Percentage error (%)

1 2 3
Burette 9.50 9.32 9.61 5.2
Graduated 9.17 8.56 8.41 12.9
Pipette
Bottle Top 9.46 9.20 9.02 7.7
Dispenser
Micropipette 9.83 9.91 9.97 1
Table 1.2

Accuracy is a measure of how close the measured value is to the true value or other standard. The
quantitive measure of accuracy is called percent error:-

Below was the data taken to calculate the percent error of Burette

Percent Error =

The table 1.2 shows that Pipette obtained 1% of percent error. Therefore, the lower the percent
error, the more accurate the measuring device is. While burette upon measuring the sample three
times gave 9.50g,9.32g and 9.61. The average of these three is 9.48g. If the true value is 9.478g, I
could say that the average was accurate but the individual measurements were neither accurate nor
precise.

After that, the 95% confidence intervals for each mean was calculated using the formula. s was
represented the standard deviation while n represented the number of repeated task

Table1.3 -Value of z

APPENDIX
Calculation of 95% Confidence Interval using the following formula :-

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1) Burette
2) Graduated Pipette
3) Bottle Top Dispenser
4) Micropipette

As the result, the data of 95% confidence interval were collected. It shows that Micropipette has the
highest accuracy and precision among the volumetric equipment. The results then determined the
systematic error which might be due to the poor of handling the data in the experiment. Thus,
sometimes the devices might be wrongly used by the experimenter itself.

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, accuracy is a measurement of how close a measurement is to the correct value while
precision is a measure of how close a series of measurements are to one another. Therefor, the most
accurate volumetric equipment was burette with the mean volume of 9.48 ml while the most precise
volumetric equipment was micropipette which has 1% of the percent error between the results
obtained.

REFERENCES