Question

The period of oscillation of a simple pendulum in the experiment is recorded as $2.63\, s,\, 2.56\, s,\, 2.42\, s, 2.71$ s and $2.80\, s$ respectively. The average absolute error is

• A. 0.1 s
• B. 0.11 s
• C. 0.01 s
• D. 1.0 s

Answer 1

Answer: (B)

Average value $=\frac{2.63+2.56+2.42+2.71+2.80}{5}=2.62 s$
Now $\left|\Delta T_{1}\right|=2.63-2.62=0.01$
$\left|\Delta T_{2}\right|=2.62-2.56=0.06$
$\left|\Delta T_{3}\right|=2.62-2.42=0.20$
$\left|\Delta T_{4}\right|=2.71-2.62=0.09$
$\left|\Delta T_{5}\right|=2.80-2.62=0.18$
Mean absolute error
$\Delta T=\frac{\left|\Delta T_{1}\right|+\left|\Delta T_{2}\right|+\left|\Delta T_{3}\right|+\left|\Delta T_{4}\right|+\left|\Delta T_{5}\right|}{5}$
$=\frac{0.54}{5}=0.108=0.11 s$