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OT-Precison vs acccuracy

crossthread

Titanium
Joined
Aug 5, 2004
Location
Richmond,VA,USA
OT-Precision vs acccuracy

My wife and I went to buy a new thermometer for the porch yesterday and out of a box of 20 or so thermometers, none of them displayed the same temperature. She said that they could not be accurate because they all read differently. A very astute observation on her part. I told her that they could not be accurate because there was no precision. This started a lively discussion about accuracy versus precision. It ended with me trying to explain how calibration achieves accuracy only after precision is exhibited. Anybody else ever had this issue (not trying to explain something to my wife)?
 
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The best comparison I heard was this: The statement "Christmas falls during the last week of December" is accurate; vs. "Christmas falls on October 23 at 9:43 PM" is precise, but not accurate.
 
well, it could be it's just a repeatability issue.


;-)

How large is the group
How close to the bull is the group center
is the group in the same spot off the bull every time?
 
I would try to explain it this way to someone who isn't in our line of work:
Precision - to make a part exactly to size one time.
Accuracy - the ability to repeat that size on a part over and over and over.
 
I would try to explain it this way to someone who isn't in our line of work:
Precision - to make a part exactly to size one time.
Accuracy - the ability to repeat that size on a part over and over and over.


how would you describe repeatability then?

The stool needs three legs
 
The target series of images is a pretty good visual aid for this one.

Wikipedia has a decent description of this:

In a set of measurements, accuracy is closeness of the measurements to a specific value, while precision is the closeness of the measurements to each other.
Yr1boNs.png
 
Old cryogenic engineer's maxim: "Man with one thermometer knows the temperature. Man with three thermometers has no idea what the temperature is."
 
That's interesting....In the UK there's a lot of company names with the suffix of "Precision"....ie "Fred Bloggs Precision" or "Bloggs Precision Engineers".
I always thought, they must have too(?), that Precision was hand in hand with Accuracy.
Afterall, there's no point being highly precisely wrong?

Generally you need good accuracy and ​precision if you want to do good work.
 
I've never been comfortable with the "conventional wisdom" thesis that high accuracy can co-exist with low precision in the absence of "dumb luck". Neither have I been comfortable with the idea that high precision can co-exist with low accuracy. That said, I do fully agree that the average of a series of measurements that are individually both accurate and precise is, very probably, a more accurate and precise quantification of the true value than are the individual measurements of the series.

Having thusly trivialized and dismissed my iconoclastic mindset, I'll argue that precision and "repeatability" -- which is necessarily quantified as NON-repeatability -- are very nearly synonyms. At the same time, I'll point out that excellent "repeatability" of a measurement can whisper of coarse measuring-instrument graduations.
 
I dislike the word "precision" because it is used so loosely. I was raised using 3 words: repeatability, resolution and accuracy. I made a chart similar to eKretz's in an attempt to teach high school students. The context was a discussion of the Phalanx anti-missile gun on the USS Stark, and its failure against the Iraqi exocet missile, circa 1987 (so many things to learn: Saddam was our friend, France makes impressive weapons, stuff doesn't work if it isn't turned on). Here are some of my slides. Summary is: precision = resolution.
Screen Shot 2022-01-14 at 11.13.42 AM.jpg
 
So your saying everything I make is precisely wrong and accurately correct ( the inspector said that not me)
Mark
 
I once produced several hundred Gyro caps with a case bore diameter PRECISELY .001 oversize on a spec tolerance of -.0000, +.0002" . The fact that I read the bore mic incorrectly didn't make them taste any better. The nearest reference I had was .010" above the nominal size.

If a system has precision and repeatability, Accuracy is as simple as off sets. (elevation and windage ;-)

To use the target analogy,

Regardless of the proven ability of the barrel , Random loads or variable winds will upset precision (distribution)
The sight settings will influence accuracy.
The shooter is going to influence repeatability
 
An example of high accuracy with low precision would be a run of parts with a tolerance band of +/-.015" - the parts can have a wide variance in size (precision) but still be accurately sized within the tolerance band. This is kind of a matter of degree, but I absolutely get where you guys are coming from.
 
Crossthread, your reply may have been more “precise and accurate” had you mentioned to your wife the thermometers were all made in china so they are neither precise nor accurate. But no, you had to imply she was wrong. Tactical error!
 








 
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