Error Analysis Experiment General Concepts 1. Why is error analysis important? Why do we care about the sources of error in an experiment? 2. Suppose that you do an experiment and your results have a small percent error. What does this signify about the level of certainty or uncertainty in each of your measurements? Hint: Think about accuracy and precision. 3. Suppose that a marksman shoots at a target and all of his shots fall in a very small region to the left of the target. What can you say about the accuracy and precision of the marksman? What is the principal type of error affecting his shooting (i.e. random or systematic?)? Why? Percent Error Large (Not accurate) General Guidelines for Interpreting Data Standard Deviation Large (Not accurate) Large (Not precise) Small (Precise) Large (Not precise) Small (Precise) Small (Accurate) Small (Accurate) Interpretation Random and maybe systematic Systematic Random Small errors. Could be either. 6. What are some possible sources of systematic error for this experiment? 7. What are some possible sources of random error for this experiment?