How to round off percentage uncertainties?

  • Thread starter Thread starter jayadds
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Uncertainties
Click For Summary
To round off percentage uncertainties, it is essential to adhere to the significant figures of the measured value. In the example provided, the percentage uncertainty calculated as 0.22153088% should be rounded to match the significant figures of the error, which is 1 significant figure in this case. Therefore, the appropriate rounding would yield 0.2% as the final percentage uncertainty. It is emphasized that one cannot use more significant figures than the least precise measurement. Proper error analysis requires justification for any deviation from this rounding convention.
jayadds
Messages
42
Reaction score
0
How to round off percentage uncertainties?

Here's is an example question:

Find the percentage of uncertainty in (225.7+/-0.5)mm.
I know that to find out percentage, it's simply 0.5/225.7 x 100 = 0.22153088...%

Now, my question is, how much do I round off for this percentage uncertainty? Should I just round it off to one significant figure? Or Is there a certain rule?
 
Physics news on Phys.org


strictly speaking you cannot use more sig figs than the smallest you are given/calculate...that is what the word 'significant' means (If they are not significant then they are insignificant !)
Your error is quoted as +/-0.5mm which means 1 significant figure so I would say round off to 0.2%
I would challenge anyone dealing with error analysis to justify that this should be given to 2 or 3 sig figs.
 
I'm not a student or graduate in Astrophysics.. Wish i were though... I was playing with distances between planets... I found that Mars, Ceres, Jupiter and Saturn have somthing in common... They are in a kind of ratio with another.. They all got a difference about 1,84 to 1,88x the distance from the previous planet, sub-planet. On average 1,845x. I thought this can be coincidential. So i took the big moons of Jupiter and Saturn to do the same thing jupiter; Io, Europa and Ganymede have a...

Similar threads

  • · Replies 8 ·
Replies
8
Views
2K
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
2K
  • · Replies 13 ·
Replies
13
Views
4K
  • · Replies 8 ·
Replies
8
Views
7K
  • · Replies 8 ·
Replies
8
Views
2K
  • · Replies 13 ·
Replies
13
Views
25K
  • · Replies 6 ·
Replies
6
Views
3K
  • · Replies 10 ·
Replies
10
Views
7K
  • · Replies 7 ·
Replies
7
Views
1K
  • · Replies 4 ·
Replies
4
Views
3K