Two different laboratories attempted to report the length of the same steel rod
PHYSICS · Multi-part · A Level · Physics · Measurements and their errors · Measurements and their errors
Problem
Two different laboratories attempted to report the length of the same steel rod. Laboratory A expressed the result as 1.000m while Laboratory B recorded it as 3.281ft. Answer the questions that follow.
(i) Explain why using non-standard or locally defined units can lead to difficulty in scientific communication.
(ii) State any two essential characteristics that an ideal standard of length must possess.
(iii) Comment on whether the two results reported above are actually in agreement, giving suitable reasoning without performing a numerical conversion.