In: Physics
What random errors actually are ???
Random errors are fluctuations in the measured data due to the precision limitations of the measurement device. Random errors usually result from the experimenter's inability to take the same measurement in exactly the same way to get exact the same number.For example - In a simple pendulum example to measure gravity, we rely on a stopwatch to record time period. Now sometimes, we may delay in stopping or starting the time due to unattentive responce which may later show up as a random error
How can we quantify these errors ??
As I took as example of simple pendulum, Let's take it further, why do we take so many readings in that experiment for different length We could have done it once and get away. But we know that some random errors may arise, so we take a lot of readings with a lot of data so that we can analyse its linearity or non-linearity by averaging over large data. Some souces of random errors are : Parallac, physical attention variation, instrument unreadability , Personal erros like mishandling, poor calibration