Sherline Tongue Weight Scale question

atreis wrote:

RCMAN46 wrote:

atreis wrote:
(It's accurate, but not necessarily precise.)

???????? What a contradictory statement.

Accuracy and precision are not the same thing. Accuracy is how close the reading is to the "true" value, as defined by the central bodies that define and standardize those true values. Precision is how many decimal points the measure can be made at WHILE STILL BEING ACCURATE. (Overly precise is when more digits of precision are provided than can actually be measured accurately.)

As an example, the Cat Scale is certified to be accurate, and the actual value printed out on the sheet will lead you to believe that it's also precise, but it isn't. It might have given you a reading of, say, 4,578 lbs, when it is really only accurate to, say, 4,600 lbs. The rest is the computer taking the reading from the sensors and reporting it, but those sensors can't read accurately at that precision. (They ought to be rounding at whatever point their precision ends.)