A buret was not held vertically when a measurement was taken, but slanted to the

Question

A buret was not held vertically when a measurement was taken, but slanted to the side a small bit while the measurements were taken. The student using the buret read an initial volume, then a final volume, and took the difference between the two volumes to calculate the volume of liquid delivered. How would the precision of the volume of liquid delivered by the slanted buret be affected? (Would the precision be better, as good, or worse than a buret that was held vertical?) Explain your reasoning.

Explanation / Answer

The precision of the volume delivered from the slanting buret will be same as that from the buret which is held vertically. It is because precision is the extent to which two or more measurements are close to each other so if the measurements are taken from the slanting buret it will only affect accuracy but not precision on the condition that all the measurements were carried out by buret slanted to the same degree and direction. This slanting will actually result in either a constant positive or negative error throughout the experiment. So with the error being constant, only accuracy is affected and not precision.

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