What if you had varying significant figures. For example: 0.379 has 3 sig figs and 1.048 has 4 sig figs. Would I round 1.048 to have the same number of decimal places?
The specific stuff I mention in this video is only really applicable to IB physics. Actual scientists use more advanced methods of analyzing data. Could you share more about what you're looking to learn about? I'm happy to recommend a book
hey, is there any justification behind taking the bigger value between the statistical uncertainty and the uncertainty of the tool youre measuring with? like why dont we graph the sum of them or something? why do we only take the bigger value?
The uncertainty is another way of saying "The range of numbers where the true value probably is." So if I have a height of 6 feet with an uncertainty of 4 inches, that's just a fancy way of saying that the real value of my height is somewhere between 5'8" and 6'4". If we're given two ranges of where a possible value could be, it's safe to assume the larger of the two ranges contains the real value. So if I were measuring my weight, and I measured 180 lbs, and one source of error said that I'm +/- 5 lbs, and another said I'm +/- 20 lbs, and I were asked to choose a range of values that contains my real weight, I could be much more confident that my weight is between 160 and 200 lbs rather than between 175 and 185 lbs. Real statisticians and scientists use more complex rules for uncertainty, but this basic rule of thumb does an okay job for the high school level
@@AndyMasley Brilliant! thanks a lot! do you have any other videos about the physics IA especially from the start of raw data, processing it, calculating uncertainties, evaluation etc.?
Yeah! Scroll down to the bottom of this page for links to videos on lab reports, and also look at the Topic 1 section for videos on uncertainty and measurements www.andymasley.com/video-lectures
@@AndyMasley Alright, thank you. i wrote down a comment earlier but it got removed because it had a link in it which youtube removes automatically. Question was (if you have time to answer that is), in my experiment, i record the frequency of a sound over a period of time then i write down the maximum and minimum values. The average is then taken by summing those values and dividing by two. this average has an uncertainty on its own. This is repeated 3 times (i.e. 3 trials) for every increment, so now i have an uncertainty for every trial, the unceratinty of the measurement tool and the statistical uncertainty you mentioned in the video. do i just take the biggest value out of the 5?
![Calculating uncertainties [IB Physics SL/HL]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ezu76kzU2c0/mqdefault.jpg)
is this how one would do it for the IA as well?
What if you had varying significant figures. For example: 0.379 has 3 sig figs and 1.048 has 4 sig figs. Would I round 1.048 to have the same number of decimal places?
Nice content
Wait but for error bars dont you find the standard deviation ?
You do in the real world! IB physics doesn't go that deep, at least not in the curriculum I taught
@@AndyMasley Thanks man
Statistical uncertainty is procedural uncertainty right?
Correct! Different name for it
can anyone refer a book based on this since I am from India and they don't teach it here and I really want to learn this?
The specific stuff I mention in this video is only really applicable to IB physics. Actual scientists use more advanced methods of analyzing data. Could you share more about what you're looking to learn about? I'm happy to recommend a book
@@AndyMasley I want to learn about the use of data analysis in physics lab experiment though I am an undergrad student.
hey, is there any justification behind taking the bigger value between the statistical uncertainty and the uncertainty of the tool youre measuring with? like why dont we graph the sum of them or something? why do we only take the bigger value?
The uncertainty is another way of saying "The range of numbers where the true value probably is." So if I have a height of 6 feet with an uncertainty of 4 inches, that's just a fancy way of saying that the real value of my height is somewhere between 5'8" and 6'4". If we're given two ranges of where a possible value could be, it's safe to assume the larger of the two ranges contains the real value. So if I were measuring my weight, and I measured 180 lbs, and one source of error said that I'm +/- 5 lbs, and another said I'm +/- 20 lbs, and I were asked to choose a range of values that contains my real weight, I could be much more confident that my weight is between 160 and 200 lbs rather than between 175 and 185 lbs. Real statisticians and scientists use more complex rules for uncertainty, but this basic rule of thumb does an okay job for the high school level
@@AndyMasley Brilliant! thanks a lot! do you have any other videos about the physics IA especially from the start of raw data, processing it, calculating uncertainties, evaluation etc.?
Yeah! Scroll down to the bottom of this page for links to videos on lab reports, and also look at the Topic 1 section for videos on uncertainty and measurements www.andymasley.com/video-lectures
@@AndyMasley Alright, thank you. i wrote down a comment earlier but it got removed because it had a link in it which youtube removes automatically. Question was (if you have time to answer that is), in my experiment, i record the frequency of a sound over a period of time then i write down the maximum and minimum values. The average is then taken by summing those values and dividing by two. this average has an uncertainty on its own. This is repeated 3 times (i.e. 3 trials) for every increment, so now i have an uncertainty for every trial, the unceratinty of the measurement tool and the statistical uncertainty you mentioned in the video. do i just take the biggest value out of the 5?
Can the deviation be 0.0 ?
thats just 0