Estimating accuracy😲
Physicists don’t always rely on significant digits when recording measurements. Sometimes, you see measurements that use plus-or-minus signs to indicate possible error in measurement, as in the following:
5.36 ± 0.05 meters
The ± part (0.05 meters in the preceding example) is the physicist’s estimate of the possible error in the measurement, so the physicist is saying that the actual value is between 5.36 + 0.05 (that is, 5.41) meters and 5.36 – 0.05 (that is, 5.31 meters), inclusive. Note that the possible error isn’t the amount your measurement differs from the “right” answer; it’s an indication of how precisely your apparatus can measure in other words, how reliable your
results are as a measurement.
@science_of_cosmos
Physicists don’t always rely on significant digits when recording measurements. Sometimes, you see measurements that use plus-or-minus signs to indicate possible error in measurement, as in the following:
5.36 ± 0.05 meters
The ± part (0.05 meters in the preceding example) is the physicist’s estimate of the possible error in the measurement, so the physicist is saying that the actual value is between 5.36 + 0.05 (that is, 5.41) meters and 5.36 – 0.05 (that is, 5.31 meters), inclusive. Note that the possible error isn’t the amount your measurement differs from the “right” answer; it’s an indication of how precisely your apparatus can measure in other words, how reliable your
results are as a measurement.
@science_of_cosmos