Re: [Phys-l] experimentation 101

[chuck britton <cvbritton@mac.com>]

Some would say - and I think that I would agree - the value of 492.5 
cm must have resulted from a fairly serious experimental blunder - 
since it differs by half a meter from any other value.
The other values all fall into a 'significantly' smaller range than this.


At 11:48 AM -0700 7/14/10, John Denker wrote:
> Here is an interesting question (not original with me):
>
> >  A group of students are told to use a meter stick to find the 
> > length of a hallway.
> >  They take 6 independent measurements (in cm) as follows: 440.2, 
> > 421.7, 434.5,
> >  492.5, 437.2, 428.9  What result should they report?  Explain your answer.
>
> So, the actual questions for today are:
>
>   a) What result would you expect your students to report?
>    What explanation(s) would they give?
>
>   b) What result would *you* report in this situation?
>    What explanation would you give?