There are two ways to calculate the absolute uncertainty of a result.
1) Absolute uncertainty of a single reading
2) Absolute uncertainty from a range of readings
Watch the video below for a summary and then have a go at the practice questions. When you are done, move on to the next topic. And remember – your uncertainty and mean can never be more accurate than your readings so think about your decimal places and significant figures!
PRACTICE QUESTIONS
1) A student records the time taken for a spring with a mass attached to oscillate once. They record the time period as 1.24 seconds.
a) The student claims the precision of the measurement is +/- 0.01s. Are they correct?
b) What would the precision (and therefor absolute uncertainty) actually be?
c) How could the student minimise this uncertainty?
2) The following set of results is obtained for the width of a wooden strip:
2.4cm, 2.6cm, 2.4cm, 2.3cm, 2.3cm, 2.5cm
a) What is the average width of the strip?
b) What is the absolute uncertainty in the width of the strip?
Physics Things 