Precision
The degree of agreement or repeatability among independent measurements of the same quantity taken under identical conditions.
Governing formula
Standard Deviation (σ)
SI unit
Various
In depth
Precision is governed by random errors and instrument resolution. High precision means tight clustering of data points around their mean, even if calibrated incorrectly relative to the true value.
Examples in the real world
A digital stopwatch reading trial times of 5.12 s, 5.13 s, and 5.12 s demonstrates high precision, whereas readings of 4.8 s, 5.5 s, and 5.1 s show low precision.