IB physics: A.0 - Error Analysis

This lesson describes the data analysis essential for IB physics Paper 1B and the Internal Assessment. It has 2 sections:

The first covers random & systematic errors, error estimation & propagation. This includes the standard formulae used by IB for functions with sums & differences, products & division, and powers. It also describes how to deal with more complex functions such as the trigonometric operators.

The second deals with straight line fitting and how to extract error estimates from the fit. This includes “linearizing” functions so as to obtain a straight line graph, problems with data (outliers, deviations from straight lines, incorrect error bar estimations) and the process of fitting the steepest & shallowest possible lines so as to derive an error. Error bars in both axes are considered. It also deals with straight line fitting on log-plots, where the error bars become asymmetrical.

Many worked examples as well as real data examples are included.

At the end there is an exam-style multiple choice quiz with worked solutions.

93 slides. Pdf, ppt & odp formats.