What Defines Measurement Accuracy and Precision?

[petuniac]

Homework Statement

Fill in the blanks...

1. ___________ indicates how close a measurement comes to its real value

2. the ___________ of a measurement can only be as accurate as the measuring device used.

3. __________ indicates how close a set of measurements are to one another using the same measuring device

4. the smaller the unit used to measure with, the more __________ the measurement

5. the smallest unit on the measuring device used is the _________ of the measuring device

Homework Equations

none

The Attempt at a Solution

1. accuracy

2. precision

3. measurement error or precison?

4. precise

5. precision

 

[cepheid]

Your answers to 1, 4, and 5 look fine to me.

I have a problem with the wording in 2.

Error or uncertainty does seem like the right answer to me in 3. I agree that the more precise the instrument is, the smaller this error will be (in general), and therefore the closer together the set of measurements of the same thing are to each other. However, the statement seems to be asking for the measure of this deviation (the error) itself, and not for the factor that mitigates it (precision).