ERROR_BAR的设置UsingErrorBarsinyourGraph.doc

Using Error Bars in your Graph The knowledge that any individual measurement you make in a lab will lack perfect precision often leads a researcher to choose to take multiple measurements at some independent variable level. Though no one of these measurements are likely to be more precise than any other，this group of values，it is hoped，will cluster about the true value you are trying to measure. This distribution of data values is often represented by showing a single data point，representing the mean value of the data，and error bars to represent the overall distribution of the data. Lets take，for example，the impact energy absorbed by a metal at various temperatures. In this case，the temperature of the metal is the independent variable being manipulated by the researcher and the amount of energy absorbed is the dependent variable being recorded. Because there is not perfect precision in recording this absorbed energy，five different metal bars are tested at each temperature level. The resulting data (and graph) might look like this: For clarity，the data for each level of the independent variable (temperature) has been plotted on the scatter plot in a different color and symbol. Notice the range of energy values recorded at each of the temperatures. At -195 degrees，the energy values (shown in blue diamonds) all hover around 0 joules. On the other hand，at both 0 and 20 degrees，the values range quite a bit. In fact，there are a number of measurements at 0 degrees (shown in purple squares) that are very close to measurements taken at 20 degrees (shown in light blue triangles). These ranges in values represent the uncertainty in our measurement. Can we say there is any difference in energy level at 0 and 20 degrees? One way to do this is to use the descriptive statistic，mean. The mean，or average，of a group of values describes a middle point，or central tendency，about which data points vary. Without going into detail，the mean is a way of summarizing a group of data and stat