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In a numerical analysis sense, it means you've made a mistake/forgotten to take the modulus, as the formula for error calculation involves taking modulus values:
Erel= |x-x*| / |x|, where x is the proper value, and x* an approximate value.
Percentage error is just the relative error (formula above) x100, so really if you calculate it correctly, its actually impossible to get a negative percentage error.
That aside, the only thing a negative error means, besides making a mistake, is that your approximation is larger/smaller than the real value, depending on which one you take away from, as it doesn't matter if you do x-x* or x*-x due to the modulus. The only thing that matters about any error value, is the size/number, which indicates by how much your approximation differs from the real value.
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What does a negative percentage error means?
A percentage error is 100*(measurement - true value)/true valueThe percentage error is negative if the measured (or calculated) value is smaller that the true value.
Can you have a negative as a percentage error?
Of course. Your answer can be a smidgen too big or a smidgen too small.
Under what condition will percentage error be negative?
it will be negative if the accepted value is less than the experimental value **********************2nd Opinion************ Don't you have that turned around?
How do you calculate percentage error for equipment?
Look on the equipment for where it says the plus or minus figure for accuracy (for a burette it is usually + and _ 0.1cm3) divide this by the amount you measured , times 100 to make it a percentage. ---- ---- Percentage Error = Maximum Error / Measured Value X 100 For example.Maximum Error for the following apparatus are:Balance = +/- 0.01Pippette = +/- 0.1 And the Measured value for each are:Balance = 0.15Pippette = 25 Then...the percentage error is:Balance percentage error = 0.01 / 0.15 X 100 = 66.66%Pippette percentage error = 0.1 / 25 X 100 = 0.3% You can now also work out your maximum total error.Maximum total Percentage error = Balance Percentage error + Pippette Percentage errorMaximum total percentage error = 66.66 + 0.4 = 67.06%
If a measurement is small is the percentage error high?
yes, it is. The smaller the measurement, the higher the percentage error.
