Experiment 1
EML 3303C
Mechanical Engineering Measurements
Summer 2014
Authored by:
Cody Appleby, Gregory Harmeling, and Joseph Pernici
May 26th, 2014
Lab section: C014
Monday 11am-1:50pm
TA: Eduardo Castillo
Work station 8
1
Abstract
This lab consisted of three different measurements; measuring length, flow rate, and resistance. The reason for this lab was to use statistical concepts learned in lecture to analyze data and to become more familiar with the lab equipment. Repeatability measurements were taken on a bolt to get the total length, and also measuring the flow rate of a faucet by measuring the amount of time it took to fill a beaker. To ensure a more accurate sample, twenty measurements of each section were obtained. For the batch measurement portion of this lab, a multi-meter was used to measure the resistance in a pack of ten resistors. Each member measured the resistors twice to allow for more precise statistical analysis.
After all measurements were recorded, statistical analysis such as mean, standard deviation, and true mean range with 90%, 95%, and 99% confidence intervals were used to obtain the results. Once calculations were made, it was determined that there was error in this laboratory due to the environment and to human error, however all of the results fell within the ranges of confidence for each given section.
Relevance
In this experiment length, flow rate, and resistance was measured and the true mean was calculated. It was observed that the true mean varied depending on the variation of the sample mean and sample standard deviation. It was shown that the population mean, or true mean, could not be found exactly, but could be estimated as a range with a certain level of confidence with the measurement of the sample mean and sample standard deviation. The knowledge practiced in this lab can be helpful in future experiments if say
References: (1) Figiola, Richard S. and Beasley, Donald E., Theory and Design for Mechanical Measurements 5th Edition, 2011, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ 11