Propagation of Error

The uncertainty in a value obtained as a result of a calculation is found using the propagation of errors formulas. These formula work for indeterminate errors. For addition and subtraction:

s2 are variance. The total variance is the sum of the individual variance.

For multiplication and division:

In this case error is propagated as the squared relative standard deviation.

Other useful formulas are:


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This page was created by Professor Stephen Bialkowski, Utah State University.

Tuesday, August 03, 2004