Q3.+Striving+for+Accuracy+and+Precision



Often times accuracy and precision in our experiments is sacrificed for time and impulsiveness. My labmates and I finished our titration experiment extremely quickly. We became too impatient with the stopcock and, rather than letting the vinegar leave the burette drop by drop, released the vinegar in quick spurts, greatly endangering the accuracy of our results. However, after calculations, we quickly realized how our impatience had ruined our results--our trials were not all within the required 0.1 mL apart from each other. Having realized this, we had to set up our experiment all over again.

The second time around, we had learned our lesson. We didn't even allow the vinegar to go drop by drop--we would take distilled water and wash in the drops one by one, until we finally received accurate results.

The titration experiment truly showed just how vital accuracy is in an experiment--even 1 extra drop can turn your experiment into a failed one.