PHYS 257 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Central Limit Theorem, Gaussian Function, Normal Distribution
21 Feb 2018
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Document Summary
If you don"t determine your uncertainty, you cannot make statements about agreement/disagreement of your measurements with a theoretical value. Precision: how well and reproducible a measurement is. Accuracy: limited by measurement precision but also by not properly calibrating an apparatus, etc. If the outcome of our measurements doesn"t give you a perfect gaussian curve, your ability to calculate the mean is limited by the amount of data you have calculate the uncertainty in the mean. Central limit theorem: gives you confidence in this result. Uncertainty should be rounded to one sig fig, then round your result so that it has the same precision. Good estimate of the error is the average of the function with quantities + their standard deviations and the function with quantities their standard deviations. Error weighted average (when each value has a different uncertainty) Overall uncertainty: 1/ 2 = sum of (1/ i.
