ACCURACY AND PRECISION

Accuracy

• Indicates how close a measurement is to

the true or accepted value of the quantity
being measured
 Example: Accuracy
• Who is more accurate when measuring a
book that has a true length of 17.0cm?
Susan:
17.0cm, 16.0cm, 18.0cm, 15.0cm

Amy:
15.5cm, 15.0cm, 15.2cm, 15.3cm
 Precision
• Refers to the closeness of measurements within a set of
data
• A measure of how exact a measurement is.
• To assess precision in a data set, several trials are made
during experimentation
– Obtained data should be close to each other regardless of the
true value for the set of data to be precise
Who is more precise when
Example: measuring
Precision
the same 17.0cm book?

Susan:
17.0cm, 16.0cm, 18.0cm, 15.0cm

Amy:
15.5cm, 15.0cm, 15.2cm, 15.3cm
 Example: Evaluate whether the following
are precise, accurate or both.

Not accurate Not accurate

Not precise Precise

Accurate Accurate
Not precise Precise
 Accuracy versus Precision
• Accuracy refers to the proximity of a
measurement to the true value of a
quantity.
• Precision refers to the proximity of
several measurements to each other
(Precision relates to the uncertainty of
a measurement).
For a measured quantity, we can generally
improve its accuracy by making more
measurements
 Scientific Notation

• Simple way of writing very large or

very small numbers without writing a
lot of zeros

• The width of a human hair of

0.000 008 m is written 8 x 10-6 m.

• A large number such as 4 500 000 s Copyright © 2005 by Pearson Education, Inc.

is written 4.5 x 106 s. Publishing as Benjamin Cummings

 Scientific Notation

• For numbers greater than 10

– Decimal point is moved to the left and the last number to the
left is given a ones place value
– Exponent used will be a positive number indicating the number
of places the decimal point has moved

Example: 602 200 = 6.022 X 105

 Scientific Notation

• For numbers less than 1

– Decimal point is moved to the right and the last number to the
right is given a ones place value
– Exponent used will be a negative number indicating the
number of places the decimal point has moved

Example: 0.00000014 = 1.4 X 10-7

 Scientific Notation

M x 10n

• M is the coefficient 1<M<10

• 10 is the base
• n is the exponent or power of 10
Some Powers of Ten
 Comparing Numbers in Standard
and Scientific Notation
Here are some numbers written in standard format
and in scientific notation.

Number in Number in
Standard Format Scientific Notation
Diameter of the Earth
12 800 000 m 1.28 x 107 m
Mass of a human
68 kg 6.8 x 101 kg
Length of a pox virus
0.000 03 cm 3 x 10-5 cm
13
 Mathematical operations involving
Exponential Numbers
• Addition and Subtraction
– Express the value to have the same exponent, then add or
subtract the numbers and retain the exponent
• Multiplication
– Numerical parts are multiplied and the exponents are added
• Division
– Numerical parts are divided and the exponents are subtracted
 Three kinds of numbers obtained in
Chemistry
• Counted
– Expressed as whole numbers (5 test tubes, 2 beakers, etc)
• Defined
– Exact number but not always whole numbers (12 inches per
foot, 2.54 cm in an inch, etc)
• Measured
– Those obtained from reading measuring devices
 Significant Figures
• The term significant figures refers to the meaningful digits
of a measurement.
• The significant digit farthest to the right in the measured
quantity is the uncertain one (e.g. for the 56 g apple)
• When rounding calculated numbers, we pay attention to
significant figures so we do not overstate the accuracy of
our answers.

In any measured quantity, there will be some uncertainty associated

with the measured value. This uncertainty is related to limitations of the
technique used to make the measurement.
To raise a number written in exponential form to a
power, such as the second power or squared) or the
third power (or cubed), the exponent is multiplied
by the power.

The nth root of a number can be written as the

number raised to the 1/n power. For example,

x = x1/2
As a general rule in taking any root of an
exponential number, the exponent must be
divisible by that root.

This means that in taking the square root of a

number, the exponent must be divisible by 2, in
taking the fourth root, the exponent must be divisible
by 4; and so on
 Rules in Significant Figures

1. Every non zero digit is significant.

354.67 = 5 significant digits
788 = 3 significant digits
2. Leftmost zeros before the first non zero digit are not
significant; they only act as placeholders to show the
position of the decimal point.
0.089 = 2 significant digits
0.000009 = 1 significant digit
 Rules in Significant Figures

3. Zeros in between non zero digits are significant.

0.005005 = 4 significant digits
456098 = 6 significant digits
4. Zeros to the right of a non zero digit and to the right of the
decimal point are significant.
36.00 = 4 significant digits
0.350 = 3 significant digits
 Rules in Significant Figures

5. Zeros at the right most end of a measurement that lie to

the left of an “understood” decimal point are not
significant if they serve as placeholders. If such zeros
were known measured values then they are significant.
These values are significant if they are written in scientific
notation.
80000 = 1 significant digit
43230 = 4 significant digits
1.000 x 10-3 = 4 significant digits
 Mathematical Operations and
Significant Figures
• Addition or subtraction
– Answer should not have more decimal places than the least
accurate measurement or least number of decimal places
• Multiplication or division
– Answer should not have more significant digits than the
measurement having the fewest significant digits
 Sig Figs in Addition/Subtraction

The result has the same number of

decimal places as the number in the
operation with the least decimal
places.
Ex: 2.33 cm
+3.0 cm
5.3 cm
 Sig Figs in Multiplication/Division

• The answer has the same sig figs as the factor with
the least sig figs.
• Ex: 3.22 cm
x 2.0 cm
6.4 cm2
 An example using sig figs
• In the first lab, you are required to measure the height
and diameter of a metal cylinder, in order to get its
volume
• Sample data: V = pr2h
height (h) = 1.58 cm
diameter = 0.92 cm; radius (r) = 0.46 cm
2 sig figs 3 sig figs
Volume = pr2h = p(0.46 cm)2(1.58 cm)
= 1.050322389 cm3 If you are asked to
report the volume,
you should round your
Only operation here
is multiplication
Answer = 1.1 cm3 answer to 2 sig figs
 Rounding
• Reporting the correct number of significant
figures for some calculation you carry out
often requires that you round the answer to
the correct number of significant figures.
• Rules: round the following numbers to 3 sig
figs
(this would round to 5.48, since 5.483 is closer to
– 5.483 5.48 than it is to 5.49)

– 5.486 (this would round to 5.49)

If calculating an answer through more than one step,

only round at the final step of the calculation.
 Rules in Rounding Off Numbers

• If the number to the right of the desired significant figures

is:
– Greater than 5
• Add 1 to the last significant figure beside it
– Less than 5
• Retain the values of the significant digits
Prefixes
Used
with SI
Units
 Sources of Errors in Measurements

• Systematic or Determinate Errors

– Those that can be attributed to definite causes
– Often reproducible
– Can be predicted and eliminated if the experimenter thoroughly
understands the fundamental aspects of measurement
 Sources of Errors in Measurements

• Systematic or Determinate Errors

– Operative or Personal Errors
• Caused by incompetence of the experimenter
– Method Errors
• Caused by non-ideal chemical or physical behavior of the reaction
system
– Instrumental Errors
• Caused by failures or imperfections of the measuring device
 Sources of Errors in Measurements

• Random or Indeterminate Errors

– Inherent to the measuring apparatus
– Cannot be reduced by the experimenter, especially when finer
measurements are obtained
• Gross Errors
– Those that are severe enough that the measurement or the
entire analysis altogether has to be repeated
– Results in outliers, which are measurements that are isolated
from all other measurements