Error Analysis in Physics Lab Report

[Sunshine State Sue]

Anyone want to explain to me what random and systematic errors are?  Even better, give me a paragraph on each that is general enough (maybe with fill-in-the-blanks) that I can use in my lab reports. 

 

I gather that random errors have to do with inaccuracies in measurement and maybe they can be quantified by % error?  Also, something about the limitations of the measuring tools, ie. they can only measure to a tenth of a cm or whatever.

 

I gather that systematic errors are when the measuring tools themselves are inaccurate.  You may or may now know?  You will know if you can can't set them to zero?

 

I would be eternally grateful.  I asked the (brand spanking newly retired nuclear engineer turned) lab instructor to explain, but I didn't understand him.  I'm not really sure he knew.  Or he didn't know how to apply the concept to non real life nuclear engineering problems.  Sigh.

[Arcadia]

The most common systematic error is zero error on the measuring instruments used to measure.

 

The below link explains better

http://www.physics.umd.edu/courses/Phys276/Hill/Information/Notes/ErrorAnalysis.html

 

ETA:

 

"Errors fall into two categories:

1. Systematic Error - errors resulting from measuring devices being out of calibration. Such measurements will be consistently too small or too large. These errors can be eliminated by pre-calibrating against a known, trusted standard.

2. Random Errors - errors resulting in the fluctuation of measurements of the same quantity about the average. The measurements are equally probable of being too large or too small. These errors generally result from the fineness of scale division of a measuring device."

 

http://facultyfiles.deanza.edu/gems/lunaeduardo/UncertaintyandSignificantFig.pdf. It explains accuracy and precision as well.