There’s also a difference between not knowing the difference and always getting them mixed up. The diagram doesn’t help with the stated problem. Also, it doesn’t address the question.
You’re not wrong, but visuals often help so it doesn’t hurt to share. I remember this picture when I need to differentiate the two terms, but some people use mnemonics or other memory devices.
Precision is about how fine a scale you can use to describe the position; what you described is repeatability
A clock with a sweep arm is more precise than one without
A digital clock showing fractions of a second is more precise
An atomic clock is even more precise
My nice precise long case chiming clock is precise to about the half minute, but it gains time when the weather becomes colder and loses time when weather becomes warmer, so it has poor repeatability. Its accuracy is good enough as I correct and tune it weekly when I wind it
My wife’s cuckoo clock is low precision with only 12 marks on it’s face and each of those being blunt and a few minutes wide, it also only sounds half hourly, tweeting the hour or once on the half hour
Huh, how accurate/precise (I always mix them up) were the real patients? Did they just identify every other patient as an imposter?
Sometimes the visual example doesn’t work well when describing math. So an alternate:
Pick a number 1 - 10. 8. Correct and accurate.
Pick a number 1 - 10. 3.1415926535. Uhh, precise, but not accurate.
Or:
Accurate is drilling the hole in the middle. Precise is picking the exact right size drill bit.
I’d be interested in consistency too.
This shows the difference between accuracy and precision.
There’s also a difference between not knowing the difference and always getting them mixed up. The diagram doesn’t help with the stated problem. Also, it doesn’t address the question.
You’re not wrong, but visuals often help so it doesn’t hurt to share. I remember this picture when I need to differentiate the two terms, but some people use mnemonics or other memory devices.
Thank you.
Accuracy is about the abilty to hit a specific target, Precision is about being able to repeat it.
Precision is about how fine a scale you can use to describe the position; what you described is repeatability
A clock with a sweep arm is more precise than one without
A digital clock showing fractions of a second is more precise
An atomic clock is even more precise
My nice precise long case chiming clock is precise to about the half minute, but it gains time when the weather becomes colder and loses time when weather becomes warmer, so it has poor repeatability. Its accuracy is good enough as I correct and tune it weekly when I wind it
My wife’s cuckoo clock is low precision with only 12 marks on it’s face and each of those being blunt and a few minutes wide, it also only sounds half hourly, tweeting the hour or once on the half hour