Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: systematic error and statistical error



My recollection is that only statistical errors are given in
real scientific publications, that is when the true value is
really unknown. If a true value is know then it is used
to eliminated the systematic error. There is no way to
determine a systematic error without comparing our
results with the accepted results. In teaching, on the
other hand, the true value is usually known and it is
OK to ask student to use it. I am not aware of any
rules about ways of reporting it. Do what you prefer.
Ludwik Kowalski

"William J. Larson" wrote:

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

--Boundary_(ID_vG6Bckfc2kKmKKQqXqfdAg)
Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-transfer-encoding: 8BIT

I want to tell my students:
"The results of your measurement should be reported in the form:
x = average of all the x-values ± systematic error ± statistical error."

Not that it really matters, but is that the right order or is it:
statistical error ± systematic error? Or is there no "right" order?

This is pretty embarrassing - obviously I don't DO physics
anymore :-(

Dr. William J. Larson
Bill_Larson@csi.com
Institut Monte Rosa
Montreux, Switzerland

--Boundary_(ID_vG6Bckfc2kKmKKQqXqfdAg)
Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-transfer-encoding: 8BIT

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META content="MSHTML 5.00.2722.2800" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV align=justify>I want to tell my students:</DIV>
<DIV align=justify>"The results of your measurement should be reported in the
form:</DIV>
<DIV align=justify>x = average of all the x-values ± systematic error ±
statistical error."</DIV>
<DIV align=justify>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV align=justify>Not that it really matters, but is that the right order or is
it:</DIV>
<DIV align=justify>statistical error ± systematic error? Or is there no "right"
order?</DIV>
<DIV align=justify>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV align=justify>This is pretty embarrassing - obviously I don't DO physics
</DIV>
<DIV align=justify>anymore :-(</DIV>
<DIV align=justify>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV align=justify>Dr. William J. Larson<BR><A
href="mailto:Bill_Larson@csi.com";>Bill_Larson@csi.com</A><BR>Institut Monte
Rosa<BR>Montreux, Switzerland<BR></DIV>
<DIV align=justify>&nbsp;</DIV></BODY></HTML>

--Boundary_(ID_vG6Bckfc2kKmKKQqXqfdAg)--