Two groups of students perform an experiment with identical simple pendulums in the…

PHYSICS · Multi-part · CBSE · Physics · Units and Measurements · Units and Measurements

Problem

Two groups of students perform an experiment with identical simple pendulums in the same laboratory. Group A reports the value

g_1 = 9.76\,\text{m\,s}^{-2}

with an estimated uncertainty of

\pm 0.05\,\text{m\,s}^{-2}

, while Group B reports

g_2 = 9.80\,\text{m\,s}^{-2}

with an estimated uncertainty of

\pm 0.20\,\text{m\,s}^{-2}

. Take the accepted value of

g

at the place to be

9.78\,\text{m\,s}^{-2}

. (i) Explain the terms "accuracy" and "precision" in the context of this experiment. (ii) Using the given data, identify which group’s measurement is more precise and which is more accurate. Justify your answer with suitable reasoning.

Related theory

Measurement Errors
Precision & Reporting
Errors in measurement
Arithmetic operations and uncertainty propagation

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