1.27. Accuracy and Precision http://www.ck12.org
1.27 Accuracy and Precision
- Define accuracy of measurements.
- Define precision of measurements.
Have you ever played golf, like the boy in this photo? Even if you haven’t played golf before, you probably know
that the goal of the game is to hit the ball into a hole with the fewest strokes of the club. Golf is a good way to
understand two important concepts in scientific measurement: accuracy and precision.
Accuracy
Theaccuracyof a measurement is how close the measurement is to the true value. If you were to hit four different
golf balls toward an over-sized hole, all of them might land in the hole. These shots would all be accurate because
they all landed in the hole. This is illustrated in the sketch below.