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    Uncertainty and Making Measurments

    Uploaded by

    Theo Clark
    1) The document describes calculating the density of a 10 cent coin by measuring its diameter, height, and mass with various tools. 2) The diameter was measured to be 23.58mm ± 0.01mm, the height was 2.12mm ± 0.005mm, and the mass was 5.696g ± 0.0005g. 3) Calculating the volume and accounting for uncertainties, the density of the coin was determined to be 6.15 g/cm3 ± 0.021, rounded to three significant figures and rounding the uncertainty up as recommended.

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    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Uncertainty and Making Measurments

    Uploaded by

    Theo Clark
    9K views8 pages
    1) The document describes calculating the density of a 10 cent coin by measuring its diameter, height, and mass with various tools. 2) The diameter was measured to be 23.58mm ± 0.01mm, the height was 2.12mm ± 0.005mm, and the mass was 5.696g ± 0.0005g. 3) Calculating the volume and accounting for uncertainties, the density of the coin was determined to be 6.15 g/cm3 ± 0.021, rounded to three significant figures and rounding the uncertainty up as recommended.

    Original Description:

    How to deal with uncertainty in calculations based on measurements - specifically in physics.

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    1) The document describes calculating the density of a 10 cent coin by measuring its diameter, height, and mass with various tools. 2) The diameter was measured to be 23.58mm ± 0.01mm, the height was 2.12mm ± 0.005mm, and the mass was 5.696g ± 0.0005g. 3) Calculating the volume and accounting for uncertainties, the density of the coin was determined to be 6.15 g/cm3 ± 0.021, rounded to three significant figures and rounding the uncertainty up as recommended.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    9K views8 pages

    Uncertainty and Making Measurments

    Uploaded by

    Theo Clark
    1) The document describes calculating the density of a 10 cent coin by measuring its diameter, height, and mass with various tools. 2) The diameter was measured to be 23.58mm ± 0.01mm, the height was 2.12mm ± 0.005mm, and the mass was 5.696g ± 0.0005g. 3) Calculating the volume and accounting for uncertainties, the density of the coin was determined to be 6.15 g/cm3 ± 0.021, rounded to three significant figures and rounding the uncertainty up as recommended.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 8

    Dealing with uncertainty in calculations - example calculation of coin density

    Say you measured a 10 cent coin’s diameter with the venier callipers
    and found its diameter to be 23.58mm.

    Diameter = 23.58 ± 0.01mm

    (It is ± 0.01mm as the smallest scale division (the limit of reading) on the
    vernier callipers is 0.02mm)

    The radius is therefore ½ this.

    r = 11.79 ± 0.005mm

    The height of the coin was measured with a micrometer screw gauge
    (which has a smallest scale division of 0.01mm).

    h = 2.12 ± 0.005mm
    Volume = Area of base x height and Area = πr2 x h, so:

    Volume = π(11.79 ± 0.005)2 x 2.12 ± 0.005mm

    Convert the absolute uncertainties to the relative (percentage)


    uncertainties so they can be added together:

    V = π(11.79mm ± 0.04241%)2 x 2.12mm ± 0.23585%

    = 925.79183 mm3 ± 0.32067 %

    Convert the mm3 to cm3 (the unit for density is g/cm3)

    V = 0. 92579183 cm3 ± 0.32067 %


    The mass of the coin was measured to be 5.696 ± 0.0005g
    (smallest scale division was 0.001g)

    Convert the absolute uncertainty of the mass to its relative (percentage)


    uncertainty so it can be added to relative uncertainty of the volume.

    = 6.1525710375 g/cm3 ± 0.32944809 %


    Convert the relative uncertainty back to an absolute

    = 6.1525710375 ± 0.0202695278 g/cm3


    Rounding off the answer and the uncertainty
    Note this with respect to rounding (adapted from Bell, S. (2001).
    Measurement Good Practice Guide - A Beginner's Guide to Uncertainty of
    Measurement (Issue 2 ed.). Teddington, Middlesex, United Kingdom:
    Centre for Basic, Thermal and Length Metrology - National Physical
    Laboratory.):

    Calculators and spreadsheets can give an answer to many decimal places.


    There are some recommended practices for rounding the results:

    Rounding of values should be carried out only at the end of the


    calculation, to avoid rounding errors. For example, if 2.346 is
    rounded up to 2.35 at an early stage in a calculation, it could later
    be rounded up to 2.4. But if 2.346 is used throughout a calculation
    it would be correctly rounded to 2.3 at the final stage.

    Although results are finally rounded either up or down, depending


    on which is the nearest figure, the rule for rounding uncertainties is
    different. The final uncertainty is rounded up to the next largest
    figure, not down.
    Rounding the answer:
    First round the answer to the correct number of significant figures. As the
    values we measured were either multiplied of divided, we simply need to
    find the measurement with the least significant figures, and use that for
    our answer. We measured the diameter (4 s.f.), the height (3 s.f.) and the
    mass (4 s.f.), so the answer needs to be rounded to 3 significant figures.

    So the answer, 6.1525710375 g/cm3 becomes 6.15 g/cm3


    Rounding the uncertainty:

    As stated earlier, rounding with the uncertainty is different. In the units


    we have the answer in, cm and g, the number of decimal places the initial
    measurements’ uncertainties were in are:
    Diameter = ± 0.01mm = ± 0.001 cm (three decimal places)

    Height = ± 0.005mm = ± 0.0005cm (four decimal places)

    Mass = ± 0.0005g (four decimal places)

    It is not unreasonable to round our final uncertainty to three decimal


    places as this is the number of decimals in the uncertainty of our least
    certain measurement.
    Therefore ± 0.0202695278 is rounded up to ± 0.021 (remember we
    always round uncertainties up – it’s better to be under confident than
    over confident)
    The final answer is:

    6.15 ± 0.021 g/cm3

    Of course, you could argue that you should round off the uncertainty to
    the least number of significant figures of the uncertainties of the
    measurement! All the uncertainties were to 1 sig fig, so we could then
    round our measurement up to ± 0.03.

    The thing to bear in mind with rounding the uncertainty is to be overly


    harsh - don’t appear more certain than you are!

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