We explain what accuracy is, its importance in measuring instruments and examples. Also, differences with precision.
What is accuracy?
By the word accuracy we understand, in various senses, the ability of something or someone to be exact, that is, to be precise, accurate, punctual, to hit the target or find exactly what you are looking for.
It is a word that our language inherited from Latin exactusparticiple of the verb I will demandwhich is translatable as “push”, “make out”, “discuss” or “claim”, and which in turn was composed of the voices ex- (“outwards”) and agere (“carry out” or “carry forward”). As will be seen, it is a word historically related to demand or requirement, but which has a radically different meaning.
It is said that something is exact, like this, or that something has accuracy, when it is very similar or identical with respect to a model (be it reality, or simply a desired value), which is adequate, correct or rigorously true. In other words, the accuracy It has to do with the proximity of a thing to the truth.
For example, if we paint a portrait exactly like its model, we are saying that it is as close as possible to the original; Or if we say that a medical diagnosis turned out to be accurate, we are stating that based on reading the patient's symptoms, he or she found precisely the disease or illness that caused them.
Of course, this word It has more specific meanings depending on the area in which we use it.especially when it refers to scientific disciplines. In mathematics, for example, exact operations are known as those that result in a whole number, that is, without decimal parts.
This same criterion is applied in practice in the financial field: “paying the exact amount” means that we must pay in such a way that we neither exceed the money offered, nor fall short, but rather that we must deliver the right amount.
See also: Exact sciences
Accuracy in measuring instruments
Measuring instruments are tools and devices that allow some magnitude to be expressed in numerical values of nature, that is, measuring.
These measurements, however, may contain a certain margin of error, attributable to external or contextual factors: a thermometer will always indicate the body temperature, but it may do so with a certain margin of proximity, that is, it will register a value close to the real one. . To the extent that said value is more similar to the real one, we can say that it is more or less exact, that is, that it has greater or less accuracy.
So, some instruments have greater margins of error than others, that is, they have greater or lesser accuracy. A measuring tape, manufactured according to international standards of how long a meter is, will undoubtedly offer us greater margins of accuracy than if we measure the same object using the quarters of a hand: the approximate values are, logically, very imprecise, and it is for This is why accuracy is preferred in science and engineering.
Examples of accuracy
Some examples to illustrate the notion of accuracy are the following:
- A furtive lover throws stones at his beloved's window, so that she can peek out and they can see each other secretly. If your stones hit the right windowyou will have made the shot accurately.
- An archer draws his bow to try to hit the target, and depending on how close to the center your arrow hitsits accuracy can be measured.
- A doctor must diagnose a disease from a set of symptoms. If you can find the correct disease, your analysis will have been accurate. If, on the other hand, it is a similar but different disease, the diagnosis will have been less accurate.
Precision and accuracy
In the scientific world, in engineering and statistics, the notion of accuracy is usually distinguished from that of precision, although in everyday speech it is possible to use them as synonyms. The difference between the two is important when understanding and interpreting experimental results or measurements and depends on the following:
- The accuracy It has to do, as we have already said, with the proximity of the measured or recorded value to a real value. That is, how close a measurement is to reality, or in any case, to the reference value.
- The precisionon the other hand, has to do with the ability of an instrument or a technique to record similar values in successive measurements, since these can vary from one another depending on the margin of error, that is, certain contextual variables.
This difference can be more easily understood with an example. Suppose a golfer tries to make a hole-in-one to break a local record. He is a good golfer, but no matter how good his technique is, there are variables that influence each shot: the wind, the humidity, the perfection of the golf ball or the force it gives to the shot; So you will have to try many times until you finally achieve it.
Well, if we judge how close the balls have landed to the hole, we will find the measure of their accuracy, since we know that the reference value is the hole itself. On the other hand, if we compare the number of times their shots were close to the hole, against the total number of attempts made, we can find their accuracy, that is, what margin of error their shots have in general.
Continue with: Accuracy
References
- “Accuracy” in Wikipedia.
- “Precision and accuracy” on Wikipedia.
- “Etymology of accuracy” in the Online Spanish Etymological Dictionary.
- “Accuracy, precision and error” at the University of Murcia (Spain).
- “Precision or accuracy? What is most important to your team?” (video) at COMINTEC (Mexico).
