Question

"If a method produces a random error for each measurement of 4%, but a percent error of equal to or less than 1% is required for this value for later analysis, what is the minimum number of measurements that must be collected and averaged? You will need to solve equation 1 for the value of n that meets the criterion of a 1% error in the average."

Answer 1

Answer:

N = 16 measurements

Step-by-step explanation:

A method produces a random error for each measurement of 4%

A percent error of equal to or less than 1% is required.

We want to find out the minimum number of measurements that must be collected.

The standard error is given by

$SE = \frac{S}{\sqrt{N} }$

Where s is the standard deviation and N is the number of measurements.

We are given standard deviation equal to 4% and SE equal to 1%

So re-arranging the above equation for N

$\sqrt{N} = \frac{S}{SE} \\N = (\frac{S}{SE})^{2}\\N = (\frac{0.04}{0.01})^{2}\\N = 16$

Therefore, a minimum 16 number of measurements are needed.