Re: what good is "percentage error"?

["Michael N. Monce" <mnmon@conncoll.edu>]

On Mon, 12 May 1997, John E. Gastineau wrote:

> Even after discussing concepts of random errors, standard deviations,
> and such, I've had to work to keep many students in freshman-level
> university physics from including the calculation in their lab reports
> as a measure of their experimental success, so I know that the
> quantity is being taught and emphasized out there. 
>
> Why? What good is it? Am I missing something? 
>
> JEG

	I find not much of value in this quantity also, and I avoid it
totally in teaching my intro labs.  It does have some use if we had the
time and intention of emphasizing the art of experimental work, for then
you look at how much the students results differ from what the rest of the
world believes.  They could then go back and redesign the experiment.

	I find that the source of the students reliance seems to be the
chemistry courses here.  They are taught to calculate this every time, and
to my horror, are graded on their "percent error"; i.e. 1%=A, 2%=B, etc.

					Mike Monce
					Connecticut College