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G
ETTING
S
TARTED WITH THE
CBL 2™ S
YSTEM
© 2000, 2003 T
EXAS
I
NSTRUMENTS
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NCORPORATED
Going Further
One way to determine the effects of measurement errors is by using theoretical
predictions. Assume that a function of the form
2
d
A
I
=
correctly represents the relationship between light intensity and distance. What
does this say about the relationship between a light intensity reading made at .5
meter and one made at 1 meter? What if the reading that was supposed to be
made at .5 meter was actually made at 45 cm and the reading that was supposed to
be made at 1 meter was actually made at 1.05 meters?
If you do everything you can to minimize all the sources of error, what sources are
left? For example, you can never measure distances exactly. How precise are your
distance measurements? How might the remaining errors affect your data?