1/14/2025

- Descriptive Statistics
- Experimental Errors
- All measurements have errors, and errors lead to uncertainty in our answers
- Understanding the uncertainty in values is important in engineering since it
places a limit on our designs

- Error:
- the difference between the measured/reported value or calculated value and the true
value
- Engineers understand that errors are present in their professional lives and must be
able to:
- recognize the types of errors
- numerically express their magnitudes
- recognize the confidence that is placed in a printed number

- True Error = Reported Value – True Value

- Fractional Error = True Error/True Value
- Percent Error = Fractional Error * 100

- Accuracy: relative nearness to the correct or true value

- Precision: repeatability of measurement regardless of accuracy
- For instrumentation, accuracy is associated with calibration, while precision is
associated with the design of the device and experience of the user

- Central Tendency
- There are three values that describe the center of a set of values:
- Mean, Median, and Mode

- Variation
- The values that measure the spread of a data set:
- Maximum and Minimum / range
- Variance
- Standard Deviation
 - Population
- the mean of a population is
𝝁 = 1/𝑛 Σ 𝑥𝑖 where n is the total number of data points
- The population variance is the degree of the spread using data representing
the entire population:
2
1/𝑛∑(𝑥𝑖 − 𝝁)
- The standard deviation of the population is the square root of the variance
2 1/2
(1/𝑛∑(𝑥𝑖 − 𝝁) )
- Sample
- The sample variance is the degree of the spread using a sample of data
2
1/𝑛∑(𝑥𝑖 − 𝝁)
-if it’s a small sample, use n-1 and not n!!!!
- Sample standard deviation is the square root of the variance and tells you how
far it is from the mean
2 1/2
(1/𝑛∑(𝑥𝑖 − 𝝁) )
- Standard Error
- the estimation of the experimental error for the mean is:
error = standard deviation / n^½
- This is the standard error of the mean

1/23/25
Propagation of Error
- If you have a set of data, measurements, and found the uncertainty of those
measurements and wanted to find another quantity using those measurements, we
also need to find the uncertainty in calculating that other quantity
- As a result, we assume that all errors are uncorrelated and random

- The formula to find this propagation is:

𝑑𝑞
δ𝑞 = || 𝑑𝑥 ||δ𝑥

-where the uncertainty of the quantity is equal to the absolute value of the
derivative of the measured quantity with respect to the calculated quantity,
multiplied by the uncertainty of the measured quantity x, and can be applied to any
function with one variable

- For calculating uncertainty for multiple variables:

ϑ𝑞 2 ϑ𝑞 2 ϑ𝑞 2
δ𝑞 = ( ϑ𝑥 δ𝑥) + ( ϑ𝑦 δ𝑦) + ( ϑ𝑧 δ𝑧) ....

- Partial Derivative is where you take the derivative with respect to one of the
variables while the others are treated as constants

1/28/2025

- Finite Differences
- approximating a numeric value for the derivative:
- If we have measurements of x1 and x2 at t1 and t2, we can take the
derivative as:
𝑑𝑥 𝑥2−𝑥1
- 𝑑𝑡
= 𝑡2−𝑡1 , or when we define the time difference as t2 - t1:
𝑥(𝑡+∆𝑡)−𝑥(𝑡)
- ∆𝑡
- First order forward first finite difference

- for measurements x1 and t1 and earlier measurements x0 and t0:

𝑑𝑥 𝑥1−𝑥0
𝑑𝑡
= 𝑡1−𝑡0
𝑑𝑥 𝑥(𝑡)−𝑥(𝑡−∆𝑡)
𝑑𝑡
= ∆𝑡

- First order backward finite difference since you are looking at a past time

- For the Second Order Centered First Finite Difference where you are looking
both forward and backward:
- For a measurement x0 at an earlier time t0 and x2 at a later time t2:
𝑑𝑥 𝑥2−𝑥0
𝑑𝑡
= 2∆𝑡
 - But to use the centered finite difference, ∆𝑡 must be the same for all points of
the centered finite difference, so if t is not evenly spaced, don’t use the centered

- Treating Data Sets

- Smoothing Data
𝑥𝑖+1 + 𝑥𝑖 + 𝑥𝑖−1
- Using a moving average: 𝑥𝑖 = 3

Basic Experimental Probabilities

- Normal Distribution
- essentially is the pattern of distribution that data sets tend to follow, forming a
gaussian curve
μ = population mean
σ = population standard deviation
- Is a type of continuous distribution which is the curve that approximates the
frequency distribution of data
- The probability associated with any interval is then related to the area under the
curve bounded by the interval:
2
−(𝑥−µ)
1 2
2σ
𝑓(𝑥) = 𝑒
σ 2π

- Standard Normal Distribution

- through making the normal distribution have a mean of zero and the standard
deviation equal to one:
𝑥−µ
𝑧= σ
- by making z tables of all the z scores for each of the data points we can
standardize the normal distribution

Central Limit theorem

- as the sample size increases, the average distribution will grow increasingly normal
along with the average of the samples
- the larger the sample size, the closer you get to the true average
 - the higher the sample area you cover, the higher your confidence level over a
confidence interval
- the equation is the same for standard error
𝑥−µ𝑥
σ𝑥 = σ/ 𝑁 but plugged into the equation for z scores: 𝑧 = σ𝑥

- To solve problems involving these, first you take the given confidence level and
convert it to decimal, then divide it by two to get the positive and negative areas
,then find the z scores for each of those areas and use them in these equations:
σ σ
𝑥−𝑧 ≤ µ≤𝑥−𝑧
𝑁 𝑁
- where X is the sample mean, N is the size of the sample, and Z is the z score of
the upper and lower limit of the probability

Universal Accounting Equation

- A system is a subset of the universe defined by an engineer to solve a problem, and
they will monitor and model it in order to do some engineering process

- You cannot change the system in the middle of calculations and system boundaries can
be any shape you want, but it must be a closed surface
- Boundaries are rigid to define a volume of space but flexible to define an object
- Types of Systems:
•Closed: mass does not cross the boundaries
•Isolated: nothing (mass, momentum, energy) crosses the boundaries
•Open: mass may or may not cross the boundaries
•Non-isolated: one or more things (mass,momentum, energy) may cross
the boundaries
•Homogeneous: properties are the same throughout the system
•Steady: system state is constant, it does not change in time, and in a steady state
system the total input will equal the total output.
•Non-homogeneous: properties vary in space
•Unsteady: system state changes in time in some way
Intensive v Extensive Quantities
- Intensive quantities don’t depend on scale:
- pressure, color, temperature, melting point, boiling point, density, viscosity

- Extensive quantities do depend on scale:

- mass, moles, area, volume, energy, charge, enthalpy

State vs Path Quantities

- State quantities are independent of the path a process takes
- Path quantities are dependent on the path of the process
- For both the initial and final states are the same but the intermediate state is different

Conservative v Non-conservative Forces

- Conservative Forces
- Work done is independent of the path taken, is reversible, and is stored as potential
energy

- Non-conservative Force
- where the work done is not independent of the path taken, is irreversible, and no
potential energy is created

Universal Accounting Equation:

𝐹𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝐴𝑚𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡 − 𝐼𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝐴𝑚𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡 = 𝐼𝑛𝑝𝑢𝑡 − 𝑂𝑢𝑡𝑝𝑢𝑡 + 𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 − 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑢𝑚𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛

- Input is what is inputted into the system
- generation and consumption both happen within the system and the output is the result
of the consumption and generation

- Conservation of Momentum
- Total initial momentum in the system is equal to the final momentum
- Kinetic Energy
- total kinetic energy may be conserved or not based on the type of collision
- In Elastic collisions, kinetic energy is conserved and the initial kinetic
energy is equal to the final
 - In Inelastic collisions the kinetic energy is not conserved and some kinetic
energy is used up in the collision:
2 2 2 2
1/2𝑚𝑎𝑣𝑎1 + 1/2𝑚𝑏𝑣𝑏1 = 1/2𝑚𝑎𝑣𝑎2 + 1/2𝑚𝑏𝑣𝑏2 + 𝐾𝐸 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑡
- In a perfectly inelastic collision, two objects stick together and move with
a common velocity

- Rigid Body Statistics:

- A particle is a common Idealization that is useful in mechanics

•If the size of a body does not affect the result, we can assume the body is a particle

•Particle properties
•A particle has mass
•The mass is concentrated at a point
•A particle is infinitesimally small
•Only forces can be applied to a particle (no moments)
•All forces applied to a particle are concurrent forces*

- Moment/Torque:
- The moment* of a force applied to a rigid body is a measure of the tendency of that force to
rotate the body about a specified point/axis

•Moments of forces are vector quantities

- The magnitude of the moment of a force about an axis is the
Product of the magnitude of the force and the perpendicular distance from the line of action of
the vector to the axis

-If the line of action of a force vector passes through the point or axis of interest, then the force does
NOT create a moment about the point or axis
Harmonic Motion
1D Harmonic Motion
-​ Is any motion that repeats itself at regular intervals, and simple harmonic motion is
a special type of motion that can be described with a sinusoidal function of time

- Equilibrium point: natural resting point of the system

- Displacement(x or y): the vector displacement of the system from the equilibrium
point
- Amplitude: maximum displacement from the equilibrium
- Period: the amount of time it takes to complete an oscillation
- Frequency: number of oscillations per second
- Angular frequency: the angular velocity (ω) or rotational speed
- Angular displacement: the angle at which the system rotates around the center, θ
- Phase difference: the shift amount to attain zero

- The restorative force is the amount of force that it takes to get the system back to
equilibrium

- Sine and Cosine:

- A sine wave is an oscillation with an amplitude of 1, angular displacement of θ, and
initial displacement of 0

- A cosine wave is identical to the sine wave but with +1 in the displacement

- Simple Pendulum: A bob suspended from the end of an unstretchable, massless string

- Damping is the increasing of the negative force causing the oscillations of springs or
pendulums to stop quicker, and damping force is proportional to the velocity:
𝐹 =− 𝑏𝑣 , where b is the damping constant
𝑚𝑎 =− 𝑏𝑣 − 𝑘𝑦

- Damped simple harmonic motion:

2 2
β − ω > 0: Overdamped, the system will quickly return to equilibrium without
oscillating
2 2
β − ω = 0: Critically damped
 2 2
β − ω < 0: Underdamped, the system will continue to oscillate around the
equilibrium until it returns to it

- Natural Angular frequency is the angular frequency at which a system oscillates

in the absence of a damping force

- Resonance is when the frequency of an applied force matches the natural

angular frequency of a system