Although rarely used properly in everyday conversation, accuracy and precision are not the same things. Learn the difference here.
For scientists, accuracy and precision are very different and can be very confusing. Accuracy is the correctness of your answer meaning the closeness of your data to the accepted value by chemists, usually accessible online somewhere. When you're thinking accuracy, think percent error.
Precision regards the consistency of your results. This is the reason we always do Read moremore than one trial of an experiment, to determine precision. When thinking precision, compare it to the average of your results. If all of your numeric results are pretty close to the average, then you were precise in your experiment, meaning you conducted it the same way for each trial. When thinking precision, also consider significant figures. Try to record data to the most significant figures to ensure precision. More decimal places is more precise, which is why, when looking for precise results, you should measure with a graduated cylinder instead of a beaker because it gives you more decimal places.
Accurate
Precise
Neither
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Accurate?
Precise?
Both?
Neither?
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Using a beaker that is labeled every 25 mL
Using a graduated cylinder that measures to the nearest tenth of a mL
Using a cracked old bottle and spilling some in the process
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Results from other trials that you conducted
The value accepted by professional chemists
100
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True
False
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