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Chapter 2 Theory of Error

This document provides an overview of error theory and analysis in engineering surveying. It discusses sources of error in measurements from imperfect instruments and human factors. There are three main types of errors - random errors that follow statistical distributions, systematic errors from instruments or environments, and gross errors from mistakes. The document also covers weighted means, standard deviation as a measure of precision, propagation of errors, and least squares adjustment to estimate true values from observations.

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Henok Asmamaw
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285 views30 pages

Chapter 2 Theory of Error

This document provides an overview of error theory and analysis in engineering surveying. It discusses sources of error in measurements from imperfect instruments and human factors. There are three main types of errors - random errors that follow statistical distributions, systematic errors from instruments or environments, and gross errors from mistakes. The document also covers weighted means, standard deviation as a measure of precision, propagation of errors, and least squares adjustment to estimate true values from observations.

Uploaded by

Henok Asmamaw
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Engineering Surveying I

Lecture 02 – Theory of Error


LOGO
Contents

Introduction

Types and sources of error

Precision indexes

Error propagation

Least square adjustment

2
Introduction

 Making observations (measurements), and subsequent


computation and analyses using them, are fundamental
tasks of surveyors.
 Good measurement require a combination of human
skill and mechanical equipment applied with utmost
judgment.
 However no matter how carefully made, observations are
never exact and will always contain errors.
Survey results can never be exactly true for a number
of reasons:
 Surveying equipment manufactured to a certain level
of precision.
 Surveyors are trained to get the most out of their
instrumentation, but no observer can make perfect
measurements.
 All survey measurements are subject to external
factors, for example all observed angles are subject to
the effects of refraction, and observed distances,
whether EDM or tape, will vary with temperature
The surveyor’s task

 
Accuracy and precision

Accuracy → relationship between the value of a


measurement and the "true" or theoretically
correct value.
 how closely an observation comes to a "true
value”
Precision → the refinement of the measuring process and
the ability to repeat the same measurement with
consistently small variations in the measurements.
 High precision doen’t Guarantee good accuracy
Sources of Errors

Sources of error fall into three broad categories,


namely:

 Natural errors - caused by variation in or adverse


weather conditions, refraction, unmodelled gravity
effects, etc.
 Instrumental errors - caused by imperfect
construction and adjustment of the surveying
instruments used.
 Personal errors - caused by the inability of the
individual to make exact observations due to the
limitations of human sight, touch and hearing
Classification of errors
Gross Error (Mistakes, Blunders)

 sometimes called gross errors


 often resulting from fatigue or the inexperience of the
surveyor e.g. sighting the wrong target in a round of
angles, reading ‘6’ on a levelling staff as ‘9’ and vice
versa.
 Do not follow certain rule
 Large in magnitude
Systematic errors
 Follows certain physical or mathematical rules
 Instrument, physical environment, human factor
 Poor accuracy
 Cumulative nature
Random errors
 remain after all other errors have been removed
 beyond the control of the observer
 The size and sign of any random error is quite
unpredictable
 obey the law of probability
 Difficult to detect but easier to remove since they are
statistical errors and can be removed by statistical
methods like averaging
Statistical charaterstics of Random errors

 The arthmetic mean of errors → zero

 -ve errors and +ve errors with same magnitude occur


roughly at equal frequency
 Errors of smaller magnitude occur more often than errors
of larger magnitude.

 Under specific measurement condition , the absolute


magnitude of errors is with in some limit
Probability distribution

 If a large number of measurements have been taken, the


frequency distribution could be considered to be the
probability distribution.
 The statistical analysis of survey observations has
indicated that the survey measurements follow normal
distribution
Where:
dy - the probability that the
value will lie between
the limits of x1 and
(x1+dx),
 - the true mean of the
population, and
 - the standard deviation.
Most probable value

 

ε=𝑥 − 
Standard Deviation

 Standard deviation also called the root-mean square


(R.M.S.) error, is a measure of spread of a distribution
 If true value is known

If MPV is calculated from the population or sample


Weights

 Weights are expressed numerically and indicate the relative


precision of quantities within a set.
 The greater the weight, the greater the precision of the
observation to which it relates.
 Consider two mean measures of the same angle: A = 50 50’
50” of weight one, and B = 50 50’ 47” of weight two. This
is equivalent to three observations, 50, 50, 46, all of equal
weight, and having a mean value of
Weighted Mean

Weights can be allocated in a variety of ways, such as:


- by personal judgement of the prevailing conditions at the
time of measurement;
- by direct proportion to the number of measurements of
the quantity, i.e. w ∝ n;
- by the use of variance and co-variance factors.
Weight is inversly proportional to variance
EXAMPLES

1. The length of a base line was measured using two


different EDM instruments A and B under identical
conditions with the following results given. Determine
the relative precision of the two instruments and the
most probable length of the base line.
Solution
Example 2:
An angle was measured with different weights as follows,
determine
a. The most probable value of the angle,
b. The standard deviation of an observation of unit weight,
c. The standard deviation of an observation of weight 3, and
d. The standard error of the weighted mean
Propagation of error

 The calculation of quantities such as areas, volumes,


difference in height, horizontal distance, etc., using the
measured quantities distances and angles, is done through
mathematical relationships between the computed
quantities and the measured quantities.
 Since the measured quantities have errors, it is inevitable
that the quantities computed from them will not have
errors.
 Evaluation of the errors in the computed quantities as the
function of errors in the measurements, is called error
propagation.
Examples

The sides of a rectangular tract were measured as 82.397 m


and 66.132 m with a 30 m metallic tape too short by 25 mm.
Calculate the error in the area of the tract.
100
Least square adjustment

 
 Easy to apply since normal equations are linear
 Gives a unique solution
 Provides a covariance matrix of parameters, allowing
statistical testing
 Can be applied to a wide variety of problems
 LS estimate is unbiased (on average equal to the true
solution)
Example:
Find the least square estimates of x and y for the follwoing
observation equation
x + y = 3.0
2x – y = 1.5
Thank You!!!

30

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