High School History of Error Bars in Physics

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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on the historical development of error bars in scientific research, highlighting their absence in early works such as Thomas Young's 1803 paper on physical optics. It establishes that the inclusion of error bars became a standard practice in scientific publications by the 1950s, reflecting a shift towards quantifying measurement uncertainties. The conversation also references additional resources, including Wikipedia and a related Physics Forums thread, for further exploration of this topic.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of basic statistical concepts related to measurement uncertainty
  • Familiarity with scientific publication standards and practices
  • Knowledge of historical scientific methodologies, particularly in physics
  • Awareness of the evolution of data representation in scientific literature
NEXT STEPS
  • Research the evolution of error analysis techniques in scientific papers
  • Explore the role of statistical methods in the development of error bars
  • Investigate key scientific conferences in the 1950s that influenced measurement standards
  • Examine case studies of early scientific papers that lacked error bars and their impact on modern practices
USEFUL FOR

Researchers, physicists, statisticians, and anyone interested in the historical context and significance of error bars in scientific measurement and reporting.

eudo
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I was reading an 1803 paper by Thomas Young (of double slit fame), "Experiments and Calculations relative to physical Optics". In it, he lists various dimensions of fringes of light and things.

All without any error bars.

It got me thinking, what's the history of error bars in scientific work? I mean nowadays, no one would submit a paper without any error bars. How did this become the standard?
 
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That page is more a brief description of what an error bar is. I'm looking more for the history of its development. When did it become common to put error bars around things? Did a bunch of scientists come to some conference one day and discuss how they needed to describe the uncertainties in their measurements? Or did one guy start doing it, and others thought that was a great idea and followed suit? That sort of thing...

Actually, I found another thread that I missed before, talking about something similar:

https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/history-of-error-analysis.791647/
[PLAIN]https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/history-of-error-analysis.791647/[/PLAIN]
 
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eudo said:
It got me thinking, what's the history of error bars in scientific work? I mean nowadays, no one would submit a paper without any error bars. How did this become the standard?
Towards the end of this reference it says that error bars became considered essential sometime in the 1950s, but it doesn’t give further details

http://www.edu-observatory.org/physics-faq/Relativity/SR/experiments.html
 
I do not have a good working knowledge of physics yet. I tried to piece this together but after researching this, I couldn’t figure out the correct laws of physics to combine to develop a formula to answer this question. Ex. 1 - A moving object impacts a static object at a constant velocity. Ex. 2 - A moving object impacts a static object at the same velocity but is accelerating at the moment of impact. Assuming the mass of the objects is the same and the velocity at the moment of impact...

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