Question:
Time intervals measured with a stopwatch typically have an uncertainty of about 0.2 s, due to human reaction time at the start and stop moments. What is the percent uncertainty of a hand-timed measurement of
- 5.5 s,
- 55 s,
- 5.5 min?
Giancoli, Douglas C., Physics: Principles with Applications, 7th Ed., ©2014. Reprinted by permission of Pearson Education Inc., New York.
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Quick Answer:
a) $4 \%$
b) $0.4 \%$
c) $0.06 \%$
Error in the video: I mistakenly wrote fractional errors instead of percent errors. The answers written above are correct, not the answers in the video, although the working in the video is correct.
Giancoli 7th Edition, Chapter 1, Problem 6
(1:15)
Comments
These answers are all miscalculated. i'm looking at the book now, it has different results.
Hi sondylevykh, thanks for spotting the errors here. I was writing fractional error rather than percent error, so the answers are off by a factor of 100. I've flagged this video for a re-do, and I'll put a note above it.
All the best,
Mr. Dychko