This question deals with reliability. Two ways that you can describe the quality of your data are its accuracy and its precision.
Accuracy refers to whether your data, on average, reflect reality. You can imagine a bullseye target. If I fired 3 arrows that landed in a perfect, regular triangle in the outermost ring, the average position of the arrows would be the bullseye.
Precision refers to whether your data points are close to each other. In the previous example, the data is accurate, but NOT precise, because if you are not consistently aiming at the same spot, your data points won't be close to one another.
If I shot three arrows at a target, and all of them landed in the outer ring, but all of the arrows landed right next to one another, then my data would be precise but NOT accurate - as all of my arrows, despite being so close to one another, are all far away from the bullseye.
Just because a method is accurate, doesn't make it precise. Just because a method is precise, doesn't make it accurate.
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This question deals with reliability. Two ways that you can describe the quality of your data are its accuracy and its precision.
Accuracy refers to whether your data, on average, reflect reality. You can imagine a bullseye target. If I fired 3 arrows that landed in a perfect, regular triangle in the outermost ring, the average position of the arrows would be the bullseye.
Precision refers to whether your data points are close to each other. In the previous example, the data is accurate, but NOT precise, because if you are not consistently aiming at the same spot, your data points won't be close to one another.
If I shot three arrows at a target, and all of them landed in the outer ring, but all of the arrows landed right next to one another, then my data would be precise but NOT accurate - as all of my arrows, despite being so close to one another, are all far away from the bullseye.
Just because a method is accurate, doesn't make it precise. Just because a method is precise, doesn't make it accurate.
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