Measurement and Statistical Treatment of Emperical Data

Precision refers to the variability among replicate measurements of the same quantity. Consider three determinations of the percentage energy loss in a conversion process, determined by one scientist, to be 2.63, 2.62, and 2.62 per cent, and three results obtained for the same energy loss, by a second scientist, to be 2.60, 2.75, and 2.81 per cent. The results of the first scientist exhibit much less variation among themselves than do those of the second, so the precision of the first set of results is better than that of the second.