Experimental data & uncertainty · SL/HL

Error & difference

Compare measured and reference values.

Your values

Number formats & units

Use decimal dots in datasets. Single values also accept decimal commas and scientific notation such as 1.2e-3 or 1.2 × 10⁻³.

Calculated locally. No account or input upload.

Example

The calculator is loading. The worked example is also shown below.

Copy & export

\text{error}=\frac{|\text{experimental}-\text{accepted}|}{|\text{accepted}|}\times100\%

\text{difference}=\frac{|a-b|}{(|a|+|b|)/2}\times100\%

\text{change}=\frac{\text{new}-\text{initial}}{|\text{initial}|}\times100\%

What the variables mean

Symbol	Meaning
accepted	Reference used for percentage error.

1.121305%

Follow the example steps

Percentage error uses the accepted value as denominator.

a = 12, b = 10: 100 × 2/12 ≈ 16.7%

100 × |12 − 10|/|10| = 20%

More checks before you submit

Method notes

Percentage error uses a reference value; percentage difference is symmetric when neither value is privileged.