Accurate Volumetric Measurement

Quote: Originally posted by Yttrium2

I've heard that the most accurate, (or is the term precise?) way to measure something is to use the vessel that has the same volume as what you want the final volume of your solution to be. In other words, to measure 800mls of liquid, it would be more accurate to use a 1000ml beaker, than to repeatedly use a syringe, or graduated cylinder. I'm wondering why this is if there is a higher standard deviation in the large container? There is insn't there?

A basic plunge into the theory of metrology and measurement uncertainty shall perhaps clarify the situation (or make it even more confusing at first glance) :

https://metrology.wordpress.com/statistical-methods-index/ba...

But a quick and simple cognitive explanation would be that measurement error and final uncertainty are composed of several individual components that are all summed up in the "measurement model".
So when you use a single container with a known error, your measurement model shall contain the error of the container and the parallactic visual error you make by assessing the fluid level (in a simple case).
When you use a syringe to measure that volume you encounter the same parallactic error+ syringe error every time you measure a portion of the volume and that shall sum up in the final uncertainty increasing it.

But since the actual errors are impossible to measure and are rather assessed by a statictical random distribution theory, the final error may not actually be greater than that achieved by the single container method.....just the uncertainty shall be greater. In other word you have less proven credible confidence in the result...