How does precision differ from accuracy in measurements?
Understand the Problem
The question is asking for the distinction between precision and accuracy in the context of measurements. It provides multiple-choice answers that explore different definitions or relationships between the two concepts.
Answer
Accuracy is how close a measurement is to the true value; precision is how close repeated measurements are to each other.
Accuracy measures how close a measurement is to the true or accepted value, while precision measures how close the results of multiple measurements of the same item are to one another, regardless of their closeness to the true value.
Answer for screen readers
Accuracy measures how close a measurement is to the true or accepted value, while precision measures how close the results of multiple measurements of the same item are to one another, regardless of their closeness to the true value.
More Information
Precision is independent of accuracy. It's possible to have high precision with low accuracy or vice versa. For example, a set of measurements can be very close to each other (high precision) but far from the true value (low accuracy).
Tips
A common mistake is to use 'precision' and 'accuracy' interchangeably, but they refer to different concepts.
Sources
- Accuracy and precision - Wikipedia - en.wikipedia.org
- What's the difference between accuracy and precision? - Asana - asana.com
- Accuracy Vs. Precision - CHEMISTRY COMMUNITY - lavelle.chem.ucla.edu
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