Calculating Apparatus Error: What to Do?

[nokia8650]

If I have apparatus reading accurately to the nearest decimal place, in order to work the percentage apparatus error out, do I perform the following calculation:

100(0.05/(reading))?

Thanks

 

[cepheid]

The short answer is yes...

...although I'm not sure why you'd want to express the uncertainty as a percentage of the measured value, because while the uncertainty will always be 0.05 in whatever units the apparatus is measuring, the percent uncertainty will vary depending upon what the measured value is.