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[Phys-L] Re: Human Error?



We've been mildly successful addressing this by doing three things.
First, we are careful to distinguish between "mistakes" and
"uncertainties due to the limitations in human timing, eyesight, etc.".
Students tend to use "human error" for both of these things. We'll
except the latter (as long as they can estimate them), not the former.

Second, we explicitly ask students WHY human error will not be accepted.
In our case, the REASON for doing the lab is to compare theory and
measurement. If mistakes are acceptable as an explanation for the
difference then we can explain ALL differences in that way. This
negates the purpose of doing the measurement in the first place.

Third, we purposely have them do experiments where the measurement is
NOT supposed to agree with theory (e.g., using conservation of energy
for a ball rolling down an incline neglecting rotational energy). This
reinforces the need to quantify the effects of uncertainties.

FWIW

____________________________________________________
Robert Cohen; 570-422-3428; www.esu.edu/~bbq
East Stroudsburg University; E. Stroudsburg, PA 18301

-----Original Message-----
From: Forum for Physics Educators
[mailto:PHYS-L@list1.ucc.nau.edu] On Behalf Of Aaron Titus
Sent: Friday, April 29, 2005 1:31 PM
To: PHYS-L@LISTS.NAU.EDU
Subject: Re: Human Error?


Well, we should start a support group.

However, I would like to add a few of my thoughts on the
topic. First, up to now, I haven't explicitly taught error
analysis and uncertainty in my physics lab. I am not proud of
that, and I do have goals to change this. Second, there are
situations where "human error" plays a role; however, those
things should be described precisely (no pun intended). For
example, uncertainty in timing with a stopwatch is not due to
the measuring device but due to reaction time. I suppose that
a proper way to measure this is to repeat the measurement
many times and find the standard deviation of the
measurements. Of course, students should refer to this
uncertainty as being due to reaction time and should
calculate it appropriately.

Aaron

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