Working as a Physicist

• Accuracy

  How close a measurement is to its true value, influenced by the systematic and random errors of that measurement
• Precision

  How close a set of repeated measurements are to one another but not the true value, influenced by random errors of those measurements
• Random Error

  The unpredictable variation in a measurement. These can be reduced by taking many repeated measurements and calculating their mean
• Repeatability

  An experiment is said to be repeatable if the same person with the same equipment obtains the same result when doing the same experiment a number of times, over a short time period
• Reproducibility

  An experiment is said to be reproducible if different people with different equipment, measuring the same quantity get a similar result
• Systematic Error

  A consistent shift in reading causing a deviation from the true value. This shift is due to the equipment or method being used and cannot be reduced by repeated measurements