Hello, I am stuck on calculating the uncertainty or resistance. I have two resistors, R1=100 (+/- 0.02) and R2 = 50.(+/-0.1).

How would I calculate the uncertainty (Rtotal) in a series and parallel circuit?

 

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Hello, I am stuck on calculating the uncertainty or resistance. I have two resistors, R1=100 (+/- 0.02) and R2 = 50.(+/-0.1).

How would I calculate the uncertainty (Rtotal) in a series and parallel circuit?

So what do you know about propagation of errors? How have you been shown how to do it. There are different approaches depending on what level you are at and how accurate you are trying to be.

Are the figures you have given fractional or absolute uncertainties? Are they hard bounds, or are they the standard deviations, or what? Are the resistances normally distributed? Are they independent? Do you know what these last couple of concepts are even referring to? If you are just starting to learn about this stuff, then these concepts may not have been mentioned yet.

Units would really help.

Regardless of what the uncertainties are expressed in, can you look at them and tell which one is going to dominate the uncertainty in the series result (and probably the parallel result, as well)?