Systematic And Random Errors
Systematic Measure Error
What are systematic errors?
Before we start, we will need to know that measurements are made in official standards and one of them is S.I. units also known as International system of units The fundamental physical parameters are as follow
Mass
Length
Time
Current
Temperature
This set of physical parameters have their own definitions according to the prescribed standards. In the context of systematic errors in measurements, this is when the calibration of the instrument resulted in recorded values that are not in line with the standards. One such common systematic errors is zero error in the instruments, resulting from the instrument, zero marks not aligned, causing readings to be inaccurate consistently. There are two types of zero errors, negative and positive. Negative zero errors under measure while positive errors over measure the value. In other words, instrument with negative zero error gives a value lower than the actual while instrument with positive zero error gives a reading larger than the actual. Another source of systematic error is known as parallax error when the eyes are not aligned with the point of measurement.
Random Measure Error
What are Random Errors?
On the other hand, Random errors in measurements are caused by the user of the instruments such as their reaction times and the environmental conditions . An example is the reaction time of a user in timing the period of the pendulum and this introduces precision variation in the measurements. The only way to reduce but not eliminate random errors is to take multiple measurements of the same parameter and finding the average value.