Calculate Measurement Error

A simple calculator for the range of the measured values and the measurement error or the measurement accuracy. The accuracy of the measurement of a physical quantity is never completely exact; there is always an error. This error describes the range of values ​​that can be measured for a fixed size. A ten percent measurement error is a generous standard specification for quantities that are difficult to measure. For quantities that are easy to measure, such as the length of things in our environment, this error is normally much smaller than ten percent. For very small lengths in the range of fractions of a millimeter and very long lengths, as occur in astronomy, the possible errors are higher. Lengths are also measured in astronomy, but of course not directly with a measure tape or similar. Larger measurement errors can also arise, for example, in the mass of objects that cannot be easily weighed and that do not have a constant density.

Please enter two of the four values, the other two values will be calculated. The percentage of measurement error applies both upwards and downwards from the medium value.

If you have measured a size several times, you can enter the lowest and the highest value, you then get a more or less good estimate of the exact size. The measured values should not be too far apart and should not have any outliers. Outliers either indicate a real change in the measured quantity or are due to a failure of the measurement method.

For example, the mass of the sun is between 1.9882 and 1.9886 times 10³⁰ kilograms, or almost 2 nontillion kg. That is more than three hundred thousand times the mass of the earth. The measurement error for the mass of the sun is about 0.01 percent. This value is so precise because the sun is, of course, an object that is frequently and extensively studied scientifically.