Encyclopedia of Mathematical Geosciences / Энциклопедия математических методов в науках о Земле

Accuracy is a measure of how close a measured value of a variable is to its true value. In the context of the mathematical geosciences, it could also be a measure of how close an estimated value of a variable is to the unknown true value at a given location when the estimate is obtained as some function of the measured data values. In the latter sense, the accuracy comprises two components: the accuracy of the measurements of the individual data values and the accuracy of the estimate based on those values.
Precision is a measure of the extent to which independent measurements of the same variable agree when using the same measuring device and procedure, i.e., the degree of reproducibility. Precision is also used to refer to the number of significant digits used in the specified measured value. For example, when comparing two measuring devices, if one can measure in smaller increments than the other, it has a higher precision of measurement. To distinguish this definition from the previous one, it will be referred to as the resolution of the measuring device. <...>