A battery-resistor analogy for further insights on measurement uncertainties

@article{deSousa2018ABA,
  title={A battery-resistor analogy for further insights on measurement uncertainties},
  author={Gabriel L A de Sousa and George C. Cardoso},
  journal={Physics Education},
  year={2018},
  volume={53}
}
We use analogies to provide introductory laboratory students intuition into measurement uncertainties. Using a battery-resistor circuit we discuss uncertainty concepts and derive expressions for uncertainty of the mean and sums of uncertainties. Finally, we draw attention to the fact that the interpretation of standard deviation as uncertainty depends on the statistical distribution of the data, while the interpretation of uncertainty of the mean is largely insensitive to such distribution… 
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