Accuracy and Precision
The Mars Rover Curiosity
On August 5, 2012, the Curiosity rover landed on Mars. Curiosity is a 6-wheeled all-terrain vehicle with an assortment of research instruments designed to explore habitable environments on the Red Planet. Click below to read more about Curiosity's highly engineered landing on Mars.
✔ Reflection 1 |
What interests you the most about space travel?
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Landing on Mars
Scientists chose the Gale Crater as the landing and exploration site for Curiosity. Nearly a decade of planning and calculation went into Curiosity's touchdown in a plain northwest of Mount Sharp, the large mountain that dominates the middle of Gale Crater. On the day of touchdown, Mars' atmosphere delivered perfect weather to minimize landing issues. A storm just east of the landing site fortunately did not interfere with Curiosity's touchdown.
Accuracy vs Precision
✔ Notes 1
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Accuracy is how close a measured value is to the actual value.
Precision is how close measured values are to each other. |
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Help a Robot Out!
Curiosity is approaching Mars, and its scanners pick up the storm to the east of the landing site. Curiosity's computers must redo some calculations, but a couple of errors occur. Match the following scenarios to the images of the Gale Crater landing site and label each recalculation as accurate and/or precise.
✔ Analysis 1 |
For the first recalculation, Curiosity's wind gauge is malfunctioning, resulting in very different draft estimations. The computer predicts a variety of touchdowns, all somewhat close to the landing site but not very close to each other.
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✔ Analysis 2 |
For the second recalculation, Curiosity input the wrong coordinates for the landing site, resulting in several predicted touchdowns very close to one another but south of the landing site.
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✔ Analysis 3 |
For the third recalculation, Curiosity adjusts the wind gauge and inputs the right coordinates. This results in the predicted touchdowns all falling within the landing site.
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Accurate and Precise:
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Precise:
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Accurate:
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✔ Discussion 1 |
What are two scenarios in which accuracy is important? What are two scenarios in which precision is important?
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✔ Reflection 1 |
Are you accurate and/or precise in your own mathematical practices?
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Curiosity on Twitter
@MarsCuriosity: TFW your friend comes over and you're out of town. @starwars' #BB8 learns about @NASA's #JourneyToMars at @NASAJPL