chipu10 Posted March 21, 2010 Report Share Posted March 21, 2010 Ok so I need to do average uncertainties for the data in my bio lab. But I don't know how to do this If someone could help me out I would really appreciate it! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandwich Posted March 21, 2010 Report Share Posted March 21, 2010 Do you by any chance use the orange Allott & Allott textbook? Or do Chemistry and have the Geoffrey Neuss blue textbook?They're in reasonably common use, and both have some guidance about how to calculate uncertainties in the back of them if you have access to either Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
masochist Posted March 21, 2010 Report Share Posted March 21, 2010 This is okay, though a little wordy:http://www.dartmouth.edu/~chemlab/info/resources/uncertain.htmlRegarding books, I use Geoffrey's Neuss' Chem Study Guide and that one has a pretty concise and effective tutorial on uncertainties in the back. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chipu10 Posted March 21, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2010 Unfortunately i don't have any of those books.. i think i might have gotten it though..would this be ok for an average?(30+41+25+31+20+25+31+30)(±0.5mm)÷8= (29 ±0.5mm) Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonneteer_Trombonist Posted March 21, 2010 Report Share Posted March 21, 2010 I've seen it done a couple different ways. The most insane way I've seen is to take your largest value and add the uncertainty, then take your smallest value and subtract the uncertainty, then figure out which number is farther from your new calculated number, then the uncertainty is plus or minus that difference.Some people say just to add the uncertainties of each trial.In Chem, my teacher advises us to just average the uncertainties, because adding the uncertainties is counterproductive to the whole purpose of having multiple trials in the first place. As far as Bio is concerned, I have never been penalized for averaging my uncertainties as my new uncertainty.So I think that's fine. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chipu10 Posted March 21, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2010 I've seen it done a couple different ways. The most insane way I've seen is to take your largest value and add the uncertainty, then take your smallest value and subtract the uncertainty, then figure out which number is farther from your new calculated number, then the uncertainty is plus or minus that difference.Some people say just to add the uncertainties of each trial.In Chem, my teacher advises us to just average the uncertainties, because adding the uncertainties is counterproductive to the whole purpose of having multiple trials in the first place. As far as Bio is concerned, I have never been penalized for averaging my uncertainties as my new uncertainty.So I think that's fine.Ok awesome!Then i'm pretty sure im done my lab thank you! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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