ERRORS AND UNCERTAINTIES

In any measurement, an experimenter measures a physical quantity in a certain environment with the help of an instrument. No measurement, such as that of mass, volume and speed, is ever absolutely correct. here is always a certain uncertainty in the measurement. The error may occur due to the:

• Negligence, inexperience or natural imperfections of the experimenter.
• Fault, limitation or inadequacy of the apparatus
• Unavoidable variation in the environment or the object being measured.

The error arising due to the natural imperfections of the experimenter, the limitation of the apparatus and the changes in the environment during the measurement is often called uncertainty. The uncertainty is usually described as an error in a measurement.

Measurement of same thing with different instruments may give different observations and hence different errors. Similarly, when two observers measure same quantity by the same instrument, their results may differ. Hence there are certain kinds of errors, which could never be removed. The errors can, however, be minimized.