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Old 01-17-2014, 08:45 AM
Diamond Dave Diamond Dave is offline
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Join Date: May 2012
Location: Blue Ridge Mountains, VA
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Those diagrams are all a little off. Here is a better example:

Suppose you know for certain that the air temperature is exactly 100.42 deg. F.

An accurate thermometer would read 100.42. An inaccurate one could read, for example, 64.31 deg. F.

A precise thermometer could read the temperature to, say, five decimal places: 100.42000 deg. F. A non-precise thermometer might only say it's 100.

A precise thermometer can be accurate (100.42000) or inaccurate (64.32641).

An accurate thermometer could take five readings, and all would read 100.42. A precise one could take five readings and read 72.57837, 116.47854, 102.03851, 50.23464, and 100.50000.

Accuracy refers to the repeatability of results, even if the results are not very specific. Precision refers to how fine a point your put on the results, right or wrong.
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