Lab 3

Propagated Uncertainty in Measurements

September 7 2016

Purpose: 

To find the propagated uncertainty of two different cylinders.

Theory: 

In order to use propagated uncertainty you have to understand that a calculation is an approximation. When you are using more then one calculation then the uncertainty becomes greater following to the final result. The more accurate we want our data to be, we either need to get more precise measuring tool or use propagated uncertainty to the how much error is our actual answer differ from the most accurate one. By taking the partial derivative, we can find uncertainty.  

Procedure: 

To begin, we first have to learn how to accurately read the measurements. In this cast we are reading them in the hundredths place. Then we use measure the diameter and height of two cylinders, one is aluminum and the other is iron, using the calipers. Then we weigh the cylinders on a digital scale.

Iron uncertainty calculations

Conclusion:

We were able to understand and find the uncertainty when measuring objects and how it can affect the objects you measure. In this case despite using relatively precise tools we discovered that our uncertainty affected our final measurement by a factor of 15%.