Measurements can be described as accurate and/or precise. Define accuracy and precision and give examples of how those terms could be used to describe a measurement.
I will be happy to critique your thinking on this.
http://www.mathsisfun.com/accuracy-precision.html
Accuracy is how close a measured value is to the actual (true) value.
Precision is how close the measured values are to each other.
but how do they relate to measurement?
Look at the bullseye in the link I posted.
Accuracy is how close a measured value is to the actual (true) value.
Precision is how close the measured values are to each other.
Say you are shooting at a Target. You shoot five times, and they all hit the bulls eye near each other; this is accurate and precise, because they are all together and have hit the bulls eye.. However, if they hit one of the outside lines beyond the bulls eye in a cluster then they are precise, but not accurate, because you‘ve failed to hit the bulls eye. If one hits the bulls eye, but the rest don’t then this is accurate, but not precise, because they’re not all together.
How about making ten measurements the same with a short ruler.
Accuracy and precision are two important concepts when assessing the quality of a measurement. Let's define them and provide examples to illustrate their differences:
Accuracy refers to how close a measured value is to the true or accepted value. It tells us if a measurement is correct or how well it represents the true quantity being measured. If a measurement is accurate, it means it is free from systematic errors or biases.
Example: Suppose you are measuring the length of a table known to be exactly 1 meter. If your measurement yields a result of 0.98 meters, it is not accurate since it deviates from the known value.
Precision, on the other hand, refers to the level of consistency, reproducibility, or repeatability of a measurement. It measures the degree of agreement between repeated measurements of the same quantity. Precise measurements are reliable and have low random errors.
Example: Let's say you measure the same table length five times and obtain results of 0.995, 1.003, 1.001, 1.002, and 0.998 meters. These measurements are precise because they are very close to each other, showing a high level of consistency.
To summarize, accuracy is about how close a measurement is to the true value, while precision relates to the consistency and reproducibility of repeated measurements.
It's worth noting that a measurement can be accurate but not precise (if it is consistently off by the same amount from the expected value), precise but not accurate (if it consistently varies but averages to the correct value), neither accurate nor precise (if it is consistently off by different amounts), or both accurate and precise (when it consistently measures values close to the true value).