Systematic errors in physical constants

SEP 01, 1961

The author is a consultant to the National Bureau of Standards on the statistical and mathematical design of experiments in physics, chemistry, and engineering. Dr. Youden joined NBS in 1948.

DOI: 10.1063/1.3057731

W. J. Youden

Physicists today make very little use of statistical techniques. There was good reason for the minor role so long accorded the statistical evaluation of the errors in physical constants. When two laboratories make independent determinations, each may attach to its “best” value a ± sign followed by an estimate s of the error. This estimate of the error is often based upon a series of observations made under carefully controlled conditions. Experimenters soon discovered that if laboratories A and B reported values $C_{A}$ and $C_{B}$ for the same constant, the difference Δ between $C_{A}$ and $C_{B}$ was almost always a large multiple of the estimated error $s_{a}$ (or $s_{b}$ ). Obviously these calculated errors had no more to do with the real errors than the neatness of the laboratory or the promptness with which the investigator answered his mail.

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More about the authors

W. J. Youden, National Bureau of Standards.