Data Collection and Processing (DCP) 1
Recording Raw Data
- Draw a table (using Excel) with a column for each measurement. This will generally mean one column for the independent variable and 5 for the repeated measurements of the dependent. There should be at least 5 rows one for each time you change the independent variable.
- If your data is coming from the gradient of a “data logger graph” or other graphic computer display include an example of this graph in you report.
- The number of decimal places should be the same for all values in a column.
- Each column must have a heading and the units of the quantity.
- You must include the estimated uncertainties in all headers even if you are going to calculate the uncertainty from the spread of data e.g. (max-min)/2.
- Uncertainties should be rounded of to 1 significant figure ±0.2 not ±0.17.
- The number of decimal places in the data should not exceed the limit of the uncertainty.e.g. if uncertainty is ±0.2 the measurement should only be quoted to 1 decimal place.
- Comment on how you arrived at any uncertainty value in the table.
- Comment on any observations you made that might be relevant later; there might not be anything here.
