Q&A for How to Calculate Uncertainty

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What is the actual definition of uncertainty?

Donagan

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Uncertainty is the acknowledgement of the possibility of error during the physical act of making a measurement.

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Question

When representing measurements on a graph, should I include errors too?

Community Answer

The errors of your measurements are included as error bars on the graph. The error bars may be vertical or horizontal.

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Question

Does uncertainty change when changing units?

Community Answer

If you had a measurement of 83 ± 5 centimeters and you decided to change this to meters, then you'd to have to change the error, as well.

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Question

How do I find percentage uncertainty?

Technist

Community Answer

Percentage uncertainty is the same as the relative uncertainties described in the article above. You find it by dividing the uncertainty by the actual measurement to obtain a percentage.

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Question

How do I calculate uncertainty of measurements?

Community Answer

It depends on the Least Count (LC) of the equipment you are using. For experiment-grade equipment, the manufacturer will provide this value. If this value is unknown, the Least Count of the equipment is used for that.

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