ERRORS ANALYSIS

INTRODUCTION
• No measurement of a physical quantity can be
entirely accurate. It is important to know, therefore,
just how much the measured value is likely to
deviate from the unknown, true, value of the
quantity.
• To many students and to the public in general, an
error is something they have done wrong. However,
in science, the word “error” means the
“uncertainty” which accompanies every
measurement
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 Cont…
• We cannot avoid the “uncertainties” by being
very careful, but all we can do is to try to
ensure they are as small as possible and to
have a reliable estimate of how large they are.

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 ERROR, MISTAKE AND BLUNDER:
• Error is the deviation from a true (or actual)
value.
• mistake is a wrong way of doing an experiment.
• blunder is a huge mistake.
• Deviation from the true value is not the same as
doing a wrong process. Sometimes you hear that,
“I made an error in doing the experiment, instead
of pouring one or two drops of indicator, I poured
five drops.” What you have actually done in this
experiment is not an error, it is a mistake in doing
an experiment.
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Difference between error and mistake
• If the calculated value of acceleration due to
gravity is 10.0 while actual value is
9.8 , then we say that an error of ± 0.2
has been done in the experiment.
• BUT, if you do not follow instruction in doing
the experiment, then we say that you have
made a mistake in doing experiment.
• So, the simple difference between error and
a mistake is that error is a mathematical
value while a mistake is procedural oriented.
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 Mathematical Treatment of Error
• Consider a block whose mass is measured on a
beam balance and found to have a mass
10.1g. If its actual mass is 10g, then error in
measuring mass,
= - 0.1
• In words,
error = actual value – measured value

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 Precision and Accuracy
• Precision is the degree with which measured
values are close to each other.
• Accuracy is the degree with which the
measured values are close to the actual value.

TYPES OF ERRORS
There are two main types of errors namely:
• Random errors
• Systematic errors

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 RANDOM ERRORS
• Random error is the type of error that is
caused by unknown causes. In this definition,
“unknown causes” means that the error
cannot be pre-defined therefore error value in
the experiment is not constant.
CAUSES OF RANDOM ERRORS
• Fluctuation in the environmental conditions.
• Carelessness in doing an experiment.
• Parallax.

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 MINIMIZING RANDOM ERRORS

• An experiment is done for many times and the

average value is taken.
• To take care of carelessness, carefulness is
needed.
• Parallax is avoided by taking a reading with an
eye perpendicular to the reading.

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 SYSTEMATIC ERROR
• Systematic error is an error that results due to
known causes.
• It normally results into a constant variation in
a measured value. For example, a measuring
cylinder that is calibrated such that volume of
5mm3 was skipped. When the cylinder is used
to measure volumes greater that 5mm3, there
will be a constant error of 1mm3 that is
introduced. The constant error incurred in
measurement is the one referred to as
systematic error.
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 CAUSES OF SYSTEMATIC ERROR
• Wrong formulas used in computation.
• Wrong calibrated instrument. If an instrument
is wrongly calibrated, it will result into an
introduction of constant error.
• Zero error:
• Zero error is an error due to instrument not
reading zero when measuring nothing. Zero
error is mostly observed in moving coil
instruments when the pointer is not at zero
when it is not measuring anything.

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 Minimizing systematic error
• Carefulness in using mathematical formulas.
• Check for correctly calibrated instruments.
• To avoid zero error, adjust the zero error. In
case of zero error in moving coil instruments,
the zero error is adjusted by screwing the
screw such that the pointer goes back to zero
when the instrument is not measuring
anything.

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 Terminologies
• Absolute error
This is the magnitude of the difference between
Measured value and actual value.
• Fractional/Relative error
This is the ratio of the absolute error and actual
value.
• Percentage error
• This is the ratio of the absolute error and
actual value times 100%

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 PROPAGATION OF ERRORS
1. ERROR IN ADDITION

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 Absolute Error in Addition
• To maximize an error, we normally do not take
the negative sign in the value of error.
Thus, absolute error
Fractional Error in Addition
Fractional error in measurement of a quantity is
the ratio of absolute error to the actual value.
For this case, the fractional error becomes

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 Percentage Error in Addition
• Percentage error in measurement is the
fractional error being multiplied by 100%.

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 2. ERROR IN SUBTRACTION

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 Absolute Error in Subtraction
• To maximize an error, we normally do not take
the negative sign in the value of error.
Thus, absolute error

Fractional Error in Subtraction

Fractional error in measurement of a quantity is
the ratio of absolute error to the measured
quantity. For this case, the fractional error
becomes:

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Percentage Error in Subtraction
• Percentage error in measurement is the
fractional error being multiplied by 100%.

3 ERROR IN MULTIPLICATION
In analysis of errors in multiplication, division
and other polynomial functions, we need a
little knowledge of natural logarithms and
differentiation
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 Cont…

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 Fractional Error in Multiplication
• The expression for fractional error is:

Percentage Error in Multiplication

• Percentage error in measurement is the
fractional error being multiplied by 100%.

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Absolute Error in Multiplication
• Absolute error in this case is obtained by
taking fractional error and then multiplying it
by measured value.

4. ERROR IN DIVISION
In analysis of errors in multiplication, division and other
polynomial functions, we need a little knowledge of
natural logarithms and differentiation

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 Cont…

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Fractional Error in Division
• Upon maximization of the error, we get

Percentage Error in Division

• Percentage error in measurement is the
fractional error being multiplied by 100%.

That is,

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Absolute Error in Division
• Absolute error in this case is obtained by
taking fractional error and then multiplying it
by measured value.
• That is,

• Thus,

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 5.ERROR IN POLYNOMIAL FUNCTION
• In analysis of errors in multiplication, division
and other polynomial functions, we need a
little knowledge of natural logarithms and
differentiation.

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 Fractional Error in Polynomial Function
• If you look carefully, this result is the expression
for fractional error

• Percentage Error in Polynomial Function

• Percentage error in measurement is the
fractional error being multiplied by 100%.
• Thus,

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Absolute Error in Polynomial Function
• Absolute error in this case is obtained by
taking fractional error and then multiplying it
by measured value.

That is,

Thus

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ACCURACY IN EXPERIMENT AND ACCURACY
NEEDED IN EXPERIMENT
• Accuracy in experiment is mathematically
equal to the difference between 100% and the
percentage error.
• That is,

• Accuracy needed in experiment is

mathematically equal to absolute error

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 Examples
1. Pressure acting on a surface area is given by
where error in force, F = 2% and that in
radius, r = 1%. Find percentage error and
accuracy in P.
Solution
See the solution in the next page

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 Cont…

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 Cont…
2. Volume of a hollow cylinder is given by
where h – is height of the cylinder
= (20 ± 0.1) cm, D – is outer diameter = (5 ± 0.09)
cm, d – is inner diameter = (3.5 ± 0.06) cm.
Calculate error in measurement of volume of the
cylinder.
Solution in the next slide

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Solution

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 cont…

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 Questions
1. Two resistors of resistances and

are connected in (a) series

(b) parallel. Find the equivalent resistance
used for (a) series connection (b) parallel
connection
2. The refractive index µ of water as measured
experimentally was found to have values
1.33, 1.35, 1.29, 1.30, 1.36, 1.30, 1.33, 1.33.
Find the (i) Mean value of µ. (ii) Mean value
of absolute error. (iii) Percentage error.
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 cont…
3. Given that specific resistance where r
is the radius of the wire, is the length of the
wire and R is resistance of the wire. Calculate
the percentage error in if R = (64 ± 2) ohm;
= (156.0 ± 0.1) cm; r = (0.26 ± 0.02) cm.

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