REN R110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Habitat Fragmentation, Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler, Manning Formula
14 Oct 2016
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Document Summary
(almost) no measurement of a physical quantity can be entirely accurate. Need to know how far any measure we make is likely to be from the unknown true measure. Management = volume and speed (excepting more error) Numerical values specified units which provides the best estimate of the quantity measured. Degree of uncertainty associated with this estimated value (+/- a value) Meaningful (or reliable) digits of a measurement. Number reported in a measurement = limited by the measuring tool. Sig digs in a measurement include the known digits plus one estimated digit. Number of meaningful digits that you accept also implies the error of that measurement. Error term = +/- 1/2 the unit of the rightmost sig dig. Sig of error = relative to the size of the quantity being measured. Zeroes anywhere between non-zero digits = significant. Trailing zeroes in numbers without a decimal = ambiguous. Number with trailing zeroes ends with a decimal= assume all zeroes are significant.
