Re: what good is "percentage error"?

[inet@intellisys.net (brian whatcott)]

At 09:36 PM 5/12/97 EST5EDT4,M4.1., Lanzafame, Frank wrote:

> > 	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
....
> I'm not certain of the origin of your "horror", but the grade is designed to 
> reflect the accuracy with which the analysis is performed in a course which is 
> designed to teach quantitative methods.
> ...
>  :-)   Frank M. Lanzafame  

A facet of the distaste for such measures is the word 'error' apparently.
Though this word figures in the general run of books of experimental statistics,
such as

Data Reduction & Error Analysis For The Physical Sciences,
 Bevington, McGraw-Hill
The Statistical Analysis of Experimental data
   Mandel, Dover
Experiments in Physical Chemistry    
 Wilson, Newcombe, Denaro, Rickett    Pergamon

-it apparently is a taboo word?

Regards

brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>
Altus OK