MDT Posted June 13, 2013 Report Share Posted June 13, 2013 Hi, I'm doing my Extended Essay in physics now, and I've done an experiment. The data I collected is being processed, and our Physics book says that absolute uncertainties should be rounded off to 1 significant figure, and the value itself should have the same number of decimals as the uncertainty. This is the easy part for me, men when it comes to multiplying and dividing, the percentage uncertainties should be added. My questions are:How many decimals should I keep when calculating with percentage uncertainties? This is during the calculations.How many decimals should be presented in the final essay?I usually use 4 decimals to be sure that the numbers are exact, but somehow it doesn't feel right to do this on the Extended Essay and it's appropriate. All answers are appreciated Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Saint... Posted June 13, 2013 Report Share Posted June 13, 2013 This is a tricky one... But I would suggest that you choose a suitable level of accuracy, and be consistent throughout the whole EE.Personally I would use 2 decimal places for calculations and three significant figures for final answers. At least that's what I do for my physics IA's Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slovakov Posted June 13, 2013 Report Share Posted June 13, 2013 (edited) Three significant figures regardless of the number of decimal places should be reasonable enough (sometimes even too detailed) for the final results. The difference between potential errors at further places will just make no significant difference to the nominal value. Edited June 13, 2013 by Slovakov Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.