Name:________________________________________

MAE 3113
MEASUREMENTS AND INSTRUMENTATIONS
FALL 2016

Exam 1
Closed Book
Open Lab/Class Journal
Master Equation Sheet

You should check to make sure you have ALL the pages

BE SURE YOU EXPLAIN YOUR ANSWERS FOR FULL CREDIT

Points Distribution
89 points maximum

Exam Date: 09/28/16

Start Time: 14:30
End Time: 15:20
(No more than 50 Mins)
 FOR FULL CREDIT BE SURE YOU
EXPLAIN YOUR ANSWERS

You should check to make sure you have ALL the pages

AND

MAKE SURE YOU ANSWER

ONLY WHAT IS ASKED FOR

Reminder that you are not to speak with anyone that has not taken the exam on the exam or
content of the exam. Doing so will be considered an act of academic dishonesty and will result
in a grade of zero for the exam and academic integrity charges begin filed.

Copying from or looking at the papers of classmates during exams is considered cheating.
This will result in a grade of zero for the exam and academic integrity charges begin filed.

Cheating also extends to use of unauthorized material during an exam. (i.e. old exams,
homework, etc.)

FOR FULL CREDIT BE SURE YOU

EXPLAIN YOUR ANSWERS
1. (5 points) A sensor has a sensitivity of 5 𝑚𝑉/°𝐶 and an accuracy of ± 1%. If the
temperature is known to be 60°𝐶, what can be said about the output voltage?

𝑘 = 5 𝑚𝑉⁄°𝐶 𝑇 = 60°𝐶
𝑉𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑙 = 5 ∙ 60 = 300 𝑚𝑉 𝑉 = 300 ± 3 𝑚𝑉

2. (5 points) If you do not know the expected value of a phenomenon but are trying to
determine just that, it is obviously better to have accurate observations with poor
precision, rather than a precise observation with poor accuracy. Why?

Accuracy is directly an indication of how well the data tracks with respect to the true/real value,
whereas precision is an indication of how the data overall tracks with respect to the mean or
average. It would be better to have accurate observations with poor precision as statically the
data will follow the true value but will have a fair amount of deviation from the mean. The
downside of having low precision is that you will have to collect a good number of data points
so that on average you are near the true value.

If the system had high precision and low accuracy, then you would not need to take as many
data points, as in general the scatter around the mean would be low, however the resulting mean
would not be near the true value as the accuracy would be low. In the end you would end up
with a consistent answer but it would be wrong and there would be no way to correct it, as you
don’t have access to the true answer.

Page 3 of 9
3. (5 points) True or False: Suppose the correlation coefficient between two variables
is found to be −1.25, it can be said that there is a strong positive correlation between
the two variables. If false, correct statement so that is becomes true. If statement is true,
then state the condition(s) required to make it false.
a) True
b) False
This statement is false for two reasons; the correlation coefficient must range between 1 and -1
and a strong positive correlation would indicate a result close to 1 and would indicate that as
the input increases the output also increases in a consistent manner.

A word of caution, while the correlation coefficient is directly related to the direction of the slope it is not the same as
the slope.

FOR FULL CREDIT BE SURE YOU

EXPLAIN YOUR ANSWERS
 4. (12 points total) Peter is measuring a voltage signal in the lab. The signal ranges from
−1.20 𝑡𝑜 0.80 𝑉, and has a dominant frequency of 1100 𝐻𝑧. Determine the following:
a) (4) The amplitude of this signal.
𝑀𝑎𝑥 − 𝑀𝑖𝑛 0.8 − (−1.2)
𝐴= = = 1.0 𝑉
2 2

b) (4) The null offset of this signal.

𝑀𝑎𝑥 + 𝑀𝑖𝑛 0.8 + (−1.2)

𝑁𝑢𝑙𝑙 = = = −0.2 𝑉
2 2
𝑜𝑟
𝑁𝑢𝑙𝑙 = 𝑀𝑎𝑥 − 𝐴 = 0.8 − 1.0 = −0.2 𝑉

c) (4) Sketch the ideal amplitude spectrum plot for the signal.

1100, 1.0
Mag (V)

0, -0.2

Freq (Hz)

5. (5 points) Which of these are not a standard primary dimension and what are the primary
dimension that are used to derive it?
 Length Power is a derived unit and is obtained from the three primary
 Time dimensions; mass, length, and time.
 Temperature
 Power 𝑃𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 → 𝐽𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑒/𝑠 𝐽𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑒 → 𝑁𝑒𝑤𝑡𝑜𝑛 ∙ 𝑚
2
 Electric Current 𝑁𝑒𝑤𝑡𝑜𝑛 → 𝑘𝑔 ∙ 𝑚/𝑠 Primary Units
(kilogram, meter, second) (mass, length, time)
𝑘𝑔 ∙ 𝑚2
𝑃𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 →
𝑠3

Page 5 of 9
6. (15 points total) Two instruments are available for measuring the force loading for an
experiment: an analog instrument with an analog meter that has a pointer and 2000
divisions over the range (−200 𝑡𝑜 800 𝑁), and a digital instrument that has a range
(0 𝑡𝑜 1000𝑁), and a digital display showing three digits. The expected force loading is
575.35 𝑁.
Analog Instrument: This device has a fixed resolution over the range -200 to 800 N
𝑆𝑝𝑎𝑛 = 𝑀𝑎𝑥 − 𝑀𝑖𝑛 1000 N
𝑅𝑒𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 = 𝑆𝑝𝑎𝑛/𝐼𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑠 0.5 N
1
𝑄𝑢𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑧𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝐸𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟 = ± 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 = ±0.25 𝑁
2
𝐴𝑝𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑆𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 @ 575.35 𝑁 575.5 ± 0.25 𝑁

Digital Instrument: This device can only display three digits so its resolution varies over
the range 0 to 1000 N
Span from 0.00 to 9.99 N 𝑅𝑒𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 = 0.01
Span from 10.0 to 99.9 N 𝑅𝑒𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 = 0.1
Span from 100 to 999 N 𝑅𝑒𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 = 1
𝐴𝑝𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑆𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 @ 575.35 𝑁 575 ± 0.5 𝑁

a) (5) Which instrument is more accurate? Discuss.

In this case the analog sensor is closer to the real solution so it is more accurate.
If the measurement had been in the span between 0 𝑎𝑛𝑑 99.9 𝑁 the digital sensor
would be closer. However, if the measurement was between 0 𝑎𝑛𝑑 − 200 𝑁, the
analog sensor would be the only choice as this is not in the range of the digital
sensor.

b) (5) Which instrument has better resolution? Discuss.

In this case the analog sensor has the better resolution. At the input of 575.35 𝑁,
the analog sensor has a resolution of 0.5 𝑁, whereas the digital sensor has a
resolution of 1 𝑁.

c) (5) Which instrument has better precision? Discuss.

In this case we can say nothing about the precision of either sensor as we only
have one reading. In order to determine precision, we must have a mean to
compare to.

FOR FULL CREDIT BE SURE YOU

EXPLAIN YOUR ANSWERS
7. (12 points) Consider the following measurements of some quantities: 3.450, 0.00345,
0.34500 and 𝜋. For each number, do the following. Note: For ease in grading, use the
provided table with the given numbers as rows, and (a), (b), and (c) as columns.
a) How many significant digits are represented by the number?
b) Round off the number to two significant digits.
c) Multiply the original number by exactly 2166, and show your result to the
appropriate number of significant digits.

(a) (b) (c)

Significant Figures: 4
3.450 Decimals: 3 3.5 7472

Significant Figures: 3
0.00345 Decimals: 5 0.0035 7.47

Significant Figures: 5
0.34500 Decimals: 5 0.35 747.27

2𝜋
∞ 6.3 4332𝜋
This is exact

Page 7 of 9
8. (12 points total) Assuming the center of the target is the location of the true measurement, match
the following repeated measurements with the corresponding Normal Distribution plot of the
normalized results.

Accuracy High
Accuracy Low Precision Low
Precision High

B.
A.

Accuracy Low Accuracy High

Precision Low Precision High

D.
C.

Accuracy Low
Precision High
Accuracy High
Precision Low

F.
E.

Accuracy Low
Accuracy High Precision Low
Precision High

H.
G.

FOR FULL CREDIT BE SURE YOU

EXPLAIN YOUR ANSWERS
9. (18 points total) A pressure transducer is used to measure the periodicity of a fluid flow. The
transducer output ranges from -5 to 5 volts, and the maximum frequency of interest is 10
Hz. Superimposed on the signal is some noise at 225 Hz with an amplitude of 5 𝑃𝑆𝐼. If the
voltage can be measured to a resolution of 0.125𝑚𝑉 and the transducer has a sensitivity of
0.250 𝑚𝑉/ 𝑝𝑠𝑖 with an amplification of 0.10 𝑉/𝑚𝑉. Determine the following:

Given:
Transducer sensitivity: 0.250 𝑚𝑉/ 𝑝𝑠𝑖
Amplifier gain: 0.10 𝑉/𝑚𝑉
Recorder Resolution: 0.125𝑚𝑉
Recorder Span: ±1𝑉

a) (8) What is the range of pressure that can be monitored?

Recorder Range (−1 𝑡𝑜 1) 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑡

transducer sensitivity of before amplification 0.250 𝑚𝑉/ 𝑝𝑠𝑖
amplification of transducer input 0.10 𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡 /𝑚𝑉𝑖𝑛 → 100 𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛
Voltage to Pressure is related by 1 𝑝𝑠𝑖/0.250 𝑚𝑉

1𝑚𝑉 1𝑝𝑠𝑖
[±1𝑉] [ ][ ] = [±40𝑝𝑠𝑖]
0.1𝑉 0.250𝑚𝑉

b) (5) What is the resolution of pressure that can be detected?

1𝑉 1𝑚𝑉 1𝑝𝑠𝑖
[0.125𝑚𝑉] [ ][ ][ ] = [0.0048 𝑝𝑠𝑖]
1000𝑚𝑉 0.1𝑉 0.250𝑚𝑉

c) (5) Can the noise be measured? Briefly explain your answer.

The noise can clearly be seen as it has an amplitude of 5 𝑝𝑠𝑖 and the system has
a resolution of 0.0048 𝑝𝑠𝑖 and is within the ±40𝑝𝑠𝑖 range.

Page 9 of 9