I frequently hear people confuse accuracy and precision.<\/p>\n
Problem:<\/strong> Explanation:<\/strong> The scientific definition of the noun “precision” is the degree to which a set of measurements of the same sample agree with that set’s mean<\/em>.<\/p>\n Imagine an archery target, and imagine an archer shooting arrows at that target.<\/p>\n The closer that an arrow lands to the center of the target (the bull’s eye), the more accurate<\/em> is the shot.<\/p>\n In contrast, if an archer can shoot several arrows that all land in almost the same location, then one can say that the archer is precise<\/em>.<\/p>\n An archer can be accurate simply by the fact that bull’s eye is the mean of the points at which all of his or her arrows land.<\/p>\n An archer can be precise simply by the fact that all of his or her arrows land in the same location.<\/p>\n Precision speaks to reproducibility and standard deviation within the sample. Higher precision in a trial (e.g., in shooting a set of arrows) refers to greater reproducibility and smaller standard deviation.<\/p>\n Accuracy speaks to nearness to the target. Higher accuracy in a trial (e.g., in shooting a set of arrows) refers to less distance between the target location or value and the mean of the actual locations or values.<\/p>\n This discussion has these implications:<\/p>\n Solution:<\/strong> I frequently hear people confuse accuracy and precision. Problem: These two nouns are not synonyms, at least not in science. Explanation: The scientific definition of the noun “accuracy” is the degree to which a measurement agrees with that measurement’s standard value. The scientific definition of the noun “precision” is the degree to which a set…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nouns","category-versus"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nThese two nouns are not<\/em> synonyms, at least not in science.<\/p>\n
\nThe scientific definition of the noun “accuracy” is the degree to which a measurement agrees with that measurement’s standard value<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n
\nThink “nearness to a goal” when thinking of accuracy. Think “reproducibility” when thinking of precision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"