Suppose a student repeats a measurement two times and then calculates the standard deviation. Because the standard deviation is small, the student reports that their experiment was extremely precise. Is the student's conclusion appropriate?

A) No, because there were not enough measurements to use standard deviation.

B) Yes, because a small standard deviation indicates greater precision

C) Yes, because a small data set always has excellent precision

D) No, because a large standard deviation indicates greater precision

Question

Gerald House

Chemistry

6 January, 02:51

Suppose a student repeats a measurement two times and then calculates the standard deviation. Because the standard deviation is small, the student reports that their experiment was extremely precise. Is the student's conclusion appropriate?

A) No, because there were not enough measurements to use standard deviation.

B) Yes, because a small standard deviation indicates greater precision

C) Yes, because a small data set always has excellent precision

D) No, because a large standard deviation indicates greater precision

+2

Answers (1)

Know the Answer?

Hailie Schwartz · Answer 1

The correct answer is option B, that is, a small standard deviation suggests greater precision.

Explanation:

A determination of precision is a standard deviation, it is more reliable in comparison to mean deviation. The square root of the total of the squares of the deviations divided by the degree of freedom for the array of measurements is known as standard deviation.

The precision of low standard deviation value is more as the results or observations demonstrated by the low standard deviation are more close to average.