Question

Errors in positioning the ruler attached to the gel cassette will result in a consistent shift in your measurements of the distances.

a. What kind of error is this?

b. Would this affect your calculation of velocities?

This is a lab question from protein gel electrophoresis

Answer 1

Solution:

The type of error involved in this is called Systematic error. Systematic errors are the errors whicharise when there is a fault with the measuring instrument. When the ruler used to measure the distances is not accurate, it'll give rise to Systematic errors.

This error can be avoided by taking more than one reading simultaneously , under the sae conditions Another possibility of error may arise due to improper rounding of the easureents taken. It is possible that the reading may be taken as an overestimate or an underestimate of the value. That can be avoided by taking an intermediate value of the measured length .

b) That effects the caculation of velocities , with varying degrees of uncertainity. If the error is insignificant , then it does not effect the velocity calculations.