Lesson: Combining Uncertainties Physics • First Year of Secondary School

In this lesson, we will learn how to find the uncertainties in the values of quantities that can be calculated from two or more measured values.

Lesson Plan

Students will be able to

recall that when two quantities, and , are added together or subtracted from one another, the uncertainty of the result is equal to the sum of the uncertainties of and (if , ),
recall that when two quantities, and , are multiplied or divided, the percent uncertainty of the result is equal to the sum of the percent uncertainties of and (if , ),
recall that when a quantity, , is raised to a power, the percent uncertainty of the result is the percent uncertainty of multiplied by the power (if , then ).