EXPERIMENTAL SKILLS

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 CONTENTS

• Scientific methods
• Variables and errors in experiments
• Control, precision and accuracy in experiments
• Fitting a straight line to measured data

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 Scientific Methods

• Observation
• Hypothesis • Experiment
• Verification • Observation
• Generalization • Inference

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Observation is not passive acquisition of sensory
information, but a critical, purposeful process, needing
a high level of awareness.

There is a reason why we chose to observe a specific

portion of the whole domain of possible objects of
observation.

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Hypothesis is an imaginative preconception or an
inspired guess about some particularly interesting
aspect of the world. Every discovery begins as a
hypothesis.

Experiment is the act undertaken to verify a hypothesis.

It discriminates between possibilities and gives direction

for further thought.

It is a happening devised to apprehend the truth.

It is the method of discovering causal interconnections.

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 About Hypothesis
• Devising a hypothesis that can be tested by practical
experiments is an art.

Non-testable hypothesis - “All men are mortal”

• Null hypothesis: Hypothesis stated in negative terms.

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 About Hypothesis
Are these following hypotheses correct or wrong ? Why ?

- If a woman wants to have good teeth, she should not have

children.
- Memory of an event fades with time because, if you do not
use the material you have learnt, it disappears due to disuse.

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 Types of Variables
Independent variable  stimulus  input  cause
is the condition manipulated to determine its effect on an
observed phenomenon.

Dependent variable  response  output  effect

is the condition that appears, disappears or varies as
the independent variable is introduced, removed or varied.
In some cases, it may be difficult to decide which of a
pair of variables is the cause and which is the effect.

Confounded variable is one whose effect cannot be

separated from the supposed independent variable. 8
 Types of Variables

Quantitative variable varies in amount.

Categorical variable varies in kind.

Continuous and discrete variables

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 Types of errors
Random  varies and equally likely to be positive
or negative.
Systematic  “constant” throughout experiment

Example: In measurement of the terminal velocity of a

ball in a viscous medium like glycerine,

Random errors can occur in starting and stopping the
Clock or in estimating the ball location on a scale.
Systematic error can occur if the clock is running slow,
or if the temperature of the glycerine drifts 10
 Types of errors
Measurements can be -

xx Accurate: small systematic and random errors

xx

xx
xx Precise but inaccurate: small random error but
systematic error can be present

x
x Imprecise and inaccurate: both systematic
x x and random errors are present

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 Types of errors

A reading is reported as R = 200.045  0.001 ohm.

Does “ 0.001” ohm represent a systematic or
random error ?

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 Detection of Errors

Random errors can be detected by repeating the

experiment, and minimized by simply averaging
the readings obtained in repetitions.

Not so for systematic errors.

How ?
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 Control in an experiment
• Control implies awareness of all the variables in
an experiment, and the ability to vary them at will.
This enables one to restrain sources of variability
in research.

• Control also means a standard against which the

effect of a particular variable can be compared.

• The effects of all but the independent variable can

be eliminated by removing them, maintaining them
constant, screening them, counterbalancing, and
systematic randomization. 14
 Difficulty in control
• Magnetostriction in ferromagnetic material:
change in length of ~ 0.005 %.
• Terminal velocity of a body in viscous liquid like
glycerine.

• Gender differences in colour preferences; gender

is confounded with past experience.

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 Why precision ?
When experiments give results at variance with
theoretical ideas, new discoveries are made.

Examples:

Discovery of argon by Raleigh and Ramsay (1895)

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 Why precision ?
Significance of results depends on precision.

If measured R = 200.025 ohm at 10o C

and = 200.034 ohm at 20o C
Can we say that temperature has an effect on
the resistance ? Yes, if error is  0.001 ohm.
No, if error is  0.01 ohm.

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 How much precision ?
Depends upon the purpose of the experiment.

If a resistance is to be used as a standard in the range

of 10 - 20 o C, and the precision required is 0.01 %,
an error of  0.01 ohm is adequate, and it is
unnecessary to reduce the error to  0.001.

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Random Error in a Single Variable

R/

4.615
4.638
4.597
4.634
4.613
4.623
4.659
4.623

Mean = 4.625 
Standard deviation, s = 0.017 
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Reduction of Random Error

Error in a mean of Error in a single

observations observation

 Number of readings
m 
n

n
Estimates for  :  s
n 1

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Estimation of Random Error in a
Function of Several Variables
Z = f (A, B, C, …..)
Z = (Z / A)0 A + (Z / B)0 B + …..
where, suffix “0” indicates the value at the “mean point”
A = A0, B = B0, etc
Examples: Z=A+B
Z = AB
Z = A/B
Z = Ae-B/(A2 + B2)
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Reduction of Systematic Error

• Choice of sequence of measurements

• Use symmetry in apparatus

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 Reduction of Systematic Error

D
B
C
A

Terminal velocity as a function of the diameter 23

 A
Reduction of Systematic Error B
C
D D
B
D
C
C
A B
A
B
C
D
A
A
D
Measured terminal velocity C
= f (diameter, viscosity, clock stability) B
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Fitting a Straight Line
Method of least squares

y = mx + c

xiyi – (xi  yi)/n

m=
xi2 – (xi)2/n
c = (yi)/n – m(xi)/n

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