Error Analysis and Graphs

1- Error Analysis
1-1- Types of experimental errors
Personal Errors or mistakes: arise from personal bias or carelessness in reading an
instrument, in recording observations, or in calculations. Examples of personal errors includes
the value of the reading depends on the position of the eye, or the reading of the object in
motion depends also on the human response time. Such errors can be minimized by using a line
of sight perpendicular to the scale and placing the meter stick edge against the object, also the
mistake can be minimized by repeating the measurements.

Figure 1.1 Personal error. Examples of personal error due to parallax in reading (a) a thermometer
and (b) a meter stick. Readings may systematically be made either too high or too low.
Systematic error: are associated with particular measurement instruments or techniques, such
as an improperly calibrated instrument or bias on the part of the observer. The term systematic
implies that the same magnitude and sign of experimental uncertainty are obtained when the
measurement is repeated several times. Determinate means that the magnitude and sign of the
uncertainty can be determined if the error is identified. Conditions from which systematic errors
can result include
1. An improperly “zeroed” instrument, for example, an ammeter as shown in Fig. 1.2.
2. A faulty instrument, such as a thermometer that reads 101 °C when immersed in boiling
water at standard atmospheric pressure. This thermometer is faulty because the reading should
be 100 °C.
3. Person bias of an observer, who, for example, always take a low reading of a scale division.
Thus, a personal error may be a systematic error.
Reducing systematic errors depends on the skill of the experimenter to detect and to prevent or
correct them.

Figure 1.2 Systematic error. An improperly zeroed instrument gives rise to systematic error.
Random error: result from unknown and unpredictable variations that arise in all experimental
measurement situations. The term indeterminate refers to the fact that there is no way to
determine the magnitude or sign (+, too large; –, too small) of the error in any individual
measurement. Conditions in which random errors can result include:
1. Unpredictable fluctuations in temperature or line voltage.
2. Mechanical vibrations of an experimental setup.
3. Unbiased estimates of measurement readings by the observer.

Repeated measurements with random errors give slightly different values each time. The effect
of random errors may be reduced and minimized by improving and refining experimental
techniques.

1-2- Accuracy versus precision

Accuracy measure of how close the result of an experiment comes to the “true value”.
Precision measure of how exactly the result is determined
1-3- Statistical analysis of random errors
When a physical quantity is measured repeatedly, a distribution of readings results because of
random errors. The mean value (average) of this set of readings is

1 n
x   xi or
n i 1

xi is the ith reading and n is the total number of measurement.

If you know the standard value of something, the percent error can be calculated as follow:

𝐸𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒−𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒

𝑃𝑒𝑟𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟 = | | 𝑥100%
𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑑 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒
Example: the measurement of the width of a piece of paper using a meter stick, and the values
obtained are entered in a data table as shown, determine the average width of a piece of paper?

Solution:
sum of observed widths 155.96
Average = = = 31.19 cm
no.of observations 5

2- Graphs and Linear Regression:

An Example of a Bad Graph

Let's see what's wrong with this graph:

 There’s no title. What's it a graph of? Who knows?
 There are no labels on the x or y axis. What are those numbers? Who knows?
 There are no units on the x or y axis or in the Title. Is this a graph of speed in miles per hour or
a graph of temperature in Kelvins? Who can tell?
 Somebody played "connect the dots". This should be a nice straight line which goes through
the points or a curve that tends to follow them.
An Example of a Good Graph

All
graphs should contain the following:
- Title
- axes labels with appropriate units
- Appropriate scales
- Data points with error bars
- Line of best fit (if applicable)
- Labeled intercepts (if applicable)

Why do we plot a data? The main reason for plotting a data in laboratory report is to explore the
relationship between various measured quantities. Some quantities of interest in this case are
(a) Slope of the graph if the relationship is linear.
(b) The degree of the polynomial or the coefficient of the highest degree polynomial for
nonlinear relationship among measured quantities.

Note that these quantities can be determined directly from the graph with the use of proper least
square fit (You may ask your instructor how to do a proper fit to your data).
 Laboratory Report

Experiment No.:……………........... Date:……………………………

Name: ……………………………... Partner’s Name: ……………
……………………………….

Metric No.: ………………………..

Experiment Name: …………………………………………

I. The Purpose’s:

II. a) Write the types and causes of experimental errors.

b) How can one reduce each type of experimental error?

 III. In an experiment to measure the acceleration due to gravity g, two independent
equally reliable measurements gave 9.67 m/s2 and 9.88 m/s2. Determine
(i) The average of the measurements.

(ii) The percent error of their average.

[Take the theoretical value of g to be 9.81 m/s2]

IV. Consider the following data taken for a load on a spring and corresponding deflection
of the spring.

Load (g) 0 10 30 50 60 70
Deflection (cm) 2.40 2.22 2.00 1.56 1.36 1.20

1) Prepare a sheet of graph paper for plotting Load versus Deflection. You should make
Load on the vertical axis and Deflection on the horizontal axis.
2) Plot the measured values on the L-D graph.
3) Draw a best fit line to the points on your graph.
4) Describe the relationship between load and deflection.
5) Find the Slope of the best fit line.
6) Find the y- intercept.
7) Write the equation that describe the relation between load and deflection.