Practice question · Put in order
Order the steps for propagating uncertainty through a calculation.
- Report the result with the propagated uncertainty
- Add the squared terms in quadrature (square root of sum of squares)
- Multiply each partial derivative by the corresponding uncertainty
- Write the formula relating measured quantities to the result
- Compute partial derivatives with respect to each variable
Hints
- The relationship must be differentiated before uncertainties can be scaled.
- Independent contributions are combined last, in quadrature.
Show the answer
- Write the formula relating measured quantities to the result
- Compute partial derivatives with respect to each variable
- Multiply each partial derivative by the corresponding uncertainty
- Add the squared terms in quadrature (square root of sum of squares)
- Report the result with the propagated uncertainty
Why
Error propagation uses partial derivatives and quadrature addition for independent uncertainties.
Practise Propagation of Errors
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