Question

Precision refers to

• A. Closeness to true value
• B. Reproducibility
• C. Sensitivity
• D. Linearity

Hint:

In analytical chemistry, terms like accuracy and precision have exact meanings and students often mix them up. This question checks that you know what precision specifically means.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is B

Concept:
In analytical chemistry, terms like accuracy and precision have exact meanings and students often mix them up. This question checks that you know what precision specifically means.

Step 1: Precision describes how close repeated measurements of the same sample are to each other. If you measure something several times and keep getting nearly the same value, your method is precise. In short, precision = reproducibility or repeatability of results.

Step 2: This is different from accuracy, which is about how close a measured value is to the true (real) value. So "closeness to true value" describes accuracy, not precision.

Step 3: Sensitivity (ability to detect small changes) and linearity (proportional response over a range) are separate analytical parameters and do not define precision. Hence the correct match for precision is reproducibility.

Answer: Option (2) — Reproducibility.