Reported uncertainties for time and distance in physics experiment

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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on the uncertainties reported in a physics lab manual for time and distance measurements. It highlights the confusion regarding varying uncertainty values for time intervals measured with the same stopwatch and the calculation of relative uncertainties for distance using a meter stick. The participant questions whether the reported uncertainties, which exceed 1, are standard practice and how they are derived. The conversation emphasizes the importance of understanding instrumental uncertainty and its impact on error bars in experimental data.

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  • Understanding of instrumental uncertainty in measurements
  • Familiarity with relative uncertainty calculations
  • Knowledge of error bar representation in data
  • Basic principles of physics experiments and data collection
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  • Research the principles of calculating instrumental uncertainty in physics experiments
  • Learn about relative uncertainty and its application in experimental data analysis
  • Explore standard practices for creating error bars in scientific reporting
  • Investigate the effects of human timing errors versus mechanical timing devices in measurements
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Physics students, laboratory technicians, and educators involved in experimental design and data analysis will benefit from this discussion, particularly those focused on understanding measurement uncertainties and their implications in scientific experiments.

fog37
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TL;DR
Reported uncertainties for time and distance in physics experiment used to create error bars in scatterplot
Hello,
I was looking at my physics lab manual... There is a table reporting time and distance data which were both measured and collected (see below). My understanding is that the uncertainty for different and measured time instants should be the same because the time was measured with the same instrument (say a stopwatch) which determines the instrumental uncertainty. However, the 3rd column shows different uncertainty values for different ##t## values.. The manual does not explain why. Those different uncertainties could be relative uncertainties, i.e. the instrument uncertainty divided by the measured value...
Same goes for the distance: if we used a meter stick, the conservative uncertainty should be half the least count, i.e. 0.5 mm or 0.05cm. So the 4th column is the relative uncertainty.

These relative uncertainties are used to create error bars...Is that a good and standard procedure?

1702579551262.png


1702579581255.png


Another table I found shows uncertainties that are bigger than 1 and are different for different t values (same goes for distance). How are those uncertainties calculated?

1702580201674.png
 

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fog37 said:
My understanding is that the uncertainty for different and measured time instants should be the same because the time was measured with the same instrument (say a stopwatch) which determines the instrumental uncertainty.
So, is the stopwatch clicked by a mechanical device with only slight lag time variations or by a human with, depending on the length of time, enormously varying lag times?
 

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