Timeline for Calculating uncertainty of a measurement
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
5 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 20, 2023 at 0:00 | comment | added | Farcher | I understand the difference between the two significant figures of $0.98$ and the three significant figures of $1.02$. Assuming that the mean and standard deviation of a normal distribution is given the percentage of values between $1.55$ and $1.57$ is as follows: for $1.6 \pm 0.1$ it is $8.4\%$; for $1.56\pm 0.13$ it is $6.1\%$; and for $1.56 \pm 0.1$ it is $8.0\%$. Not really that much of a difference? | |
| Feb 19, 2023 at 18:02 | comment | added | Gabriel Golfetti | It's the same deal when you buy cheap resistors and half of the decade is reserved for 1s and 2s. Proportionally the second digit makes way more difference in those ranges. | |
| Feb 19, 2023 at 17:58 | comment | added | Gabriel Golfetti | @Farcher The reasoning for this given to me in lab class way back when is that for 1 or 2 the next-to-leading digit substantially affects the size of the uncertainty. The range $1.0 - 1.5$ could quite literally be the difference between $2\sigma$ and $3\sigma$. | |
| Feb 19, 2023 at 17:49 | comment | added | Farcher | I am not sure as to your reason for quoting the error to two significant figures. Even though there is limited information, if a statistical test is performed to see if the two values are different it is found that there is no significant difference between them. | |
| Feb 19, 2023 at 3:57 | history | answered | Gabriel Golfetti | CC BY-SA 4.0 |