Accuracy, Precision, and Significant Figures
Read this text to learn more about uncertainty, accuracy, precision and significant figures.
Check Your Understanding
A high school track coach has just purchased a new stopwatch. The stopwatch manual states that the stopwatch has an uncertainty of ±0.05 s. The team's top sprinter clocked a 100 meter sprint at 12.04 seconds last week and at 11.96 seconds this week. Can we conclude that this week's time was faster?
Solution
No, the uncertainty in the stopwatch is too great to effectively differentiate between the sprint times.