Accuracy VS Precision

Firstly we define Precise and then we define Accuracy.

1. Precision shows the magnitude of error in a measurement while accuracy shows the relativity of Error among different measurements. In other words, accuracy shows how much a measurement is accurate as compared to other measurement.

2. There is inverse relationship between precision and accuracy. The more precision in a measurement, the lesser accuracy it has and vice versa.

3. Example of Precision is that, suppose a measurement of 21.2 cm. has more precision as it has less magnitude of error i.e., it has 0.05 error in magnitude while 3938 km. has less precision as it has more magnitude in error i.e., 0.5.

Example of Accuracy can be given as:

We know that accuracy is the relativity of error among different measurements, so let us calculate relative error for both of the above measurements, 21.2 and 3938:

For 1^st Measurement   Error / Quantity Measured = 0.05 / 21.2 = 0.002

   For 2^nd Measurement    Error / Quantity Measured = 0.5 / 3938 = 0.0001

The second measurement has more accuracy as compared to first measurement because second measurement has less relative error eventhough it has less precision while the first measurement has less relative error so it has less accuracy eventhough it has more precision.

So it is all about Accuracy VS Precision, I hopeful, now you are in the position to understand the topic.