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Re: what good is "percentage error"?

Ludwik beat me to the punch with his answer. Beginning student do seem to
have a natural tendency to make absolute comparisons and in early, simple
labs the percent error can help break this habit. The more sophisticated
analyses we would like to see must be learned and must evolve so I can't
imagine students (or me) being ready to do anything much fancier in the
first few labs of a course.

Rick

----------
From: LUDWIK KOWALSKI <kowalskil@alpha.montclair.edu>
To: phys-l@atlantis.cc.uwf.edu
Subject: RE: what good is "percentage error"?
Date: Monday, May 12, 1997 10:41 AM

It is better to say "I am off 5%" than "I am off 2 cm". What is wrong
with
using this percentage error indicator for a single evaluation, as long as
you say this clearly. Yes, it does not say a lot but it does say
something.