MEASUREMENT

LESSON 1.1
 ACCURACY AND PRECISION
 LIMITATIONS OF MEASUREMENT
 MATHEMATICAL RELATIONS
 A physical measurement is never exact.
 Its accuracy depends on the degree of refinement of the
measuring device and is limited by the skill of the observer
doing the measurement.
 It does not matter whether the apparatus being used is the
best in the world or the observer is the most skilled.
 To a certain degree, the measurement will still be
uncertain.
 Every reported measurement of a certain property or
characteristic of a material is just a best estimate of the
correct value.
 LIMITATIONS OF MEASUREMENT

Measurements are never as certain as the physical

world they attempt to describe because scientific
instruments are imperfect and scientists themselves
are fallible.

Two kinds of certainty (or uncertainty) in scientific

measurement:
1. Accuracy – exactness of the measurement
2. Precision – involves the repeatability of a measurement
ACCURACY IN MEASUREMENT

Concerns how closely a

measurement or series
of measurements
reflects the actual
value.
 If the set of measurements
is close to the true or
accepted value.
The more exact the
measurement is, the
more accurate it is.
 PRECISION IN MEASUREMENT

How close several

measurements are
to each other.
 The values are close
to one another.
 Systematic Errors and Random Errors

No matter how careful we are in doing our

measurements, we do commit or encounter some
errors.
Error is the technical term for uncertainty in reading
a measurement.
An error in measurement means an uncertainty
between the measured value and the standard value.
Our reading may be too small or too large.
We make a positive error if our reading is too large
and a negative error if our reading is too small.
 Two Classes of Error

1. Systematic error
 When the error produced is always of the same sign.
 It is committed if the measurement tends to make all
observations too big or too small.
 Classified into three:
 Instrumental errors – errors caused by faulty or inaccurate
apparatus.
 Personal – errors that involve some peculiarity or bias of the
observer, like the tendency to assume that the first reading is
correct. This is also committed due to eye strain, fatigues, or
position of the eye in reading the scale.
 External – errors that are caused by external conditions like
temperature, humidity, wind, and vibrations.
2. Random error
 When positive and negative errors are equally probable to
occur.
 These errors are erratic errors that are variations due to a lot of
factors, each of which adds or contributes to the total error.
 These factors vary and are unknown, therefore, the error
produced is a matter of chance which means that the
probability of making both positive and negative errors are
equal.
 Taking a large number of observations will lessen the effect of
error in the experiment because they are subject to the laws of
chance.
Estimating Errors from Multiple Measurements of a
Physical Quantity Using Variance

How to estimate errors from multiple measurements

of a physical quantity using variance?
 Have several readings, n readings, take the sum of these
readings and take the arithmetic mean.
 Then, take the individual deviation, d, of the readings from the
arithmetic mean.
 Take the average of these deviations by getting the sum of the
deviations (without regard of sign) divided by the number of
observations, n.
 Example

Length (cm) Deviation (d)

12.30 -0.04 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛=
∑ 𝑥 = 98.72 =12.34
12.35 +0.01 𝑛 8
12.31 -0.03
12.34 0.00 𝑎. 𝑑 .=
∑ 𝑑 = 0.16 =0.02
𝑛 8
12.36 +0.02
12.38 +0.04
𝑎. 𝑑. 0.02
12.33 -0.01 𝐴. 𝐷 .= = =0.01 𝑐𝑚
12.35 +0.01
√𝑛 √ 8

a – average deviation

– average deviation of the mean

 MATHEMATICAL RELATION

Direct Proportion (
 Example:
 the cost of 1 pen = P12 (1 x 12)
 the cost of 2 pens = P24 (2 x 12)
 the cost of 3 pens = P36 (3 x 12)
 the cost of 4 pens = P48 (4 x 12)
 the cost of 5 pens = P60 (5 x 12)
Number of pens 1 2 3 4 5
Cost of pens 12 24 36 48 60

x2 x3 x4
x5
 Number of pens (x) 1 2 3 4 5
Cost of pens (y) 12 24 36 48 60

(constant) y
x & y are in direct proportion
x = ky .
.
96

.
Graph: 84

.
72

.
60
48
.
.
36

.
24
12 x
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
S = 3 km/hr. S = 6 km/hr. S = 9 km/hr.
30 min 15 min 10 min

S= 45 km/hr.
2 min
 Inverse Proportion

x 15

x2 x3

Speed in km/hr 3 6 9 45
Time taken in minutes 30 15 10 2

x x x
 speed

time

As speed increases, time taken decreases at the same ratio.

Speed x time = constant
xy=k
Direct Proportion: “If one quantity increases, the
other quantity increases at the same rate. If one
quantity decreases, the other quantity decreases at
the same rate.”

Inverse Proportion: “If one quantity increases, the

other quantity decreases at the same rate. If one
quantity decreases, the other quantity increases at
the same rate.”