![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Another confusing duo...
May. 26th, 2015 06:37 pmDo you know the difference between precision and accuracy?
I never really thought about it until the difference was explained to me in, of all places, Marine boot camp, on the rifle range.
One of the first orders of business in learning how to fire a rifle is to get a repeatable result. If, after initial instruction in marksmanship, you fire three rounds at a target and end up with three holes that are widely separated, you are not gettting a repeatable result, which means you're doing something wrong, but I digress...
On the other hand, if you fire three rounds at a target and end up with three holes that are so close together that you could cover all three with a half dollar, then you are shooting with high precision.
Where does accuracy come in?
Well, how accurate you are will depend on where the "group" of holes is. If it's located in the center of the bullseye, then not only are you shooting with precision, but also with accuracy. If the group is over by the edge of the target, then by making suitable adjustments to one's sights, subsequent shots will end up in the bullseye.
Curiously, if you fire three shots that all end up in the bullseye, but not in a group, you are firing with reasonable accuracy, but poor precision.
In technical terms, accuracy is closely linked to the idea of systematic error; precision, to random error.
What absolutely wipes me out, however, is that there is no suitable pair of terms in Russian (or at least none that I am aware of). In my experience, both ideas are rendered by the word точность. Various synonyms I see for точность do address the idea of, e.g., repeatability, but I've almost never seen them in my translations. (That, or everyone is always talking about accuracy in my translations.)
Is everyone sufficiently confused now?
Cheers...
I never really thought about it until the difference was explained to me in, of all places, Marine boot camp, on the rifle range.
One of the first orders of business in learning how to fire a rifle is to get a repeatable result. If, after initial instruction in marksmanship, you fire three rounds at a target and end up with three holes that are widely separated, you are not gettting a repeatable result, which means you're doing something wrong, but I digress...
On the other hand, if you fire three rounds at a target and end up with three holes that are so close together that you could cover all three with a half dollar, then you are shooting with high precision.
Where does accuracy come in?
Well, how accurate you are will depend on where the "group" of holes is. If it's located in the center of the bullseye, then not only are you shooting with precision, but also with accuracy. If the group is over by the edge of the target, then by making suitable adjustments to one's sights, subsequent shots will end up in the bullseye.
Curiously, if you fire three shots that all end up in the bullseye, but not in a group, you are firing with reasonable accuracy, but poor precision.
In technical terms, accuracy is closely linked to the idea of systematic error; precision, to random error.
What absolutely wipes me out, however, is that there is no suitable pair of terms in Russian (or at least none that I am aware of). In my experience, both ideas are rendered by the word точность. Various synonyms I see for точность do address the idea of, e.g., repeatability, but I've almost never seen them in my translations. (That, or everyone is always talking about accuracy in my translations.)
Is everyone sufficiently confused now?
Cheers...
