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MAE 3113
MEASUREMENTS AND INSTRUMENTATIONS
SPRING 2013
Exam 1
Closed Book
Open Lab Notebook
Provided Excel document
Master Equation Sheet

You should check to make sure you have ALL the pages

BE SURE YOU EXPLAIN YOUR ANSWERS FOR FULL CREDIT


This is a two part exam.
The first part is written and the second part is on the computer
Raw Data for the computer section can be found in provided Excel document

Points Distribution
100 points maximum













FOR FULL CREDIT BESURE YOU
EXPLAIN YOUR ANSWERS

AND

MAKE SURE YOU ANSWER
ONLY WHAT IS ASKED FOR



Reminder that you are not to speak with anyone that has not taken the
exam on the exam or content of the exam. Doing so will be considered
an act of academic dishonesty and will result in a grade of zero for the
exam and academic integrity charges begin filed.

Copying from or looking at the papers of classmates during exams is
considered cheating. This will result in a grade of zero for the exam and
academic integrity charges begin filed.

Cheating also extends to use of unauthorized material during an exam.
(i.e. old exams, homework, etc.)






Name:______________________
3/9


1 (5) If you do not know the expected value of a phenomenon but are trying to
determine just that, it is obviously better to have accurate observations with
poor precision, rather than a precise observation with poor accuracy. Why?


Accuracy is directly an indication of how well the data tracks with respect to
the true/real value, whereas precision is an indication of how the data overall
tracks with respect to the mean or average. It would be better to have accurate
observations with poor precision as statically the data will follow the true
value but will have a fair amount of deviation from the mean.



2 (5) For each figure below, state the level of accuracy and precision
(High, Medium, Low)



Accuracy
High
Measurements are very
close to true or center

Accuracy
Low
On average the Mean
measurement is far from
true or center
Precision
High
There is little deviation
in the measurements
fromthe Mean
Precision
Low
There is a large amount
of deviation in the
measurements fromthe
Mean
The above case is an example of what happens if
you have high accurancy and high precision. This
is the idea measurement but is rarely what is
found in practice.
The above case is a perfect example of what
happens if you have low accurancy and low
precision. This system is least desirable as it
contains large amounts of both bias and random
errors.

Accuracy
High
On average the Mean
measurement is close to
true or center

Accuracy
Low
On average the Mean
measurement is far from
true or center
Precision
Low
There is a large amount
of deviation in the
measurements fromthe
Mean
Precision
High
There is little deviation in
the measurements from
the Mean
The above case is a perfect example of what
happens if you have high accurancy but low
precision. For this system one must be very
careful with the number of data points to collect
so that statically you arrive near the true value
The above case is a perfect example of what
happens if you have high precision but low
accuracy. For this system very careful calibration
is required to remove the offset-bais
3 (3) How many sample points must be acquired in order to perform a discrete
Fourier transform (FFT) given:
a. The frequency resolution is .
b. The signal was acquired at a sample rate of

=

= / = 1/
=

However it is more likely the
number of divisions is actually
4096 as this is the closest
power of 2.







4 (3) What is the highest frequency that can be resolved when performing a
Discrete Fourier Transform or FFT with a sample rate of

= ?

= 1000
Any frequency that is less than the folding frequency will be sampled
correctly, while any frequency above it will still be sampled but will suffer
from aliasing.


5 (3) The same voltage data is acquired by two different a digital data
acquisition system and a FFT is performed, and the resulting frequency
spectrum plot is generated. Briefly comment on which of the following has
the better frequency resolution?
Case a: Data is sampled at

= 100 , with 512 data points.

Case b: Data is sampled at

= 200 , with 256 data points.

=

/ = 0.195

/ = 0.781

<

Name:______________________
5/9


6 (3) Data is acquired with a digital data acquisition system at a sampling
frequency of 100 Hz for a total sampling time of 3 seconds. Determine the
number of unique discrete frequencies that you can solve for.

First the total number of samples must be found

= 300
With 300 samples the total number of unique discrete frequencies is 150
While not required for this problem; The frequency domain would range
from zero to 50 Hz and have a resolution of 0.33
7 (8 Points) A signal has a 1.50 V DC component and two harmonic
components:




If the signal is sampled digitally at a sample rate of 500 Hz and 512 data
points are recorded, determine the following.
a. (2) Is there any aliasing? If so, calculate the aliasing frequency. (

)
i. DC Component 0
ii. 125 250 < 500
iii. 325 650 > 500

325
= 175

b. (6) Calculate the frequency resolution and sketch the idea frequency
spectrum/domain.
i. =

/ = 0.977




Frequency
1
= 125 , amplitude
1
= 2.00
Frequency
2
= 325 , amplitude
2
= 0.500
8 (10 Points) A calibration curve of force loading (y) output to input voltage
(x) has the form:
= 5.328 +0.628
2

a. (5) What is the static sensitivity of the calibration curve at x =8.5?
i. K(x) =

= 5.328 +1.256
ii. K(8.5) =

16.00
b. (5) If the expected measurement range (output) is between 0 and
10 kg what is input voltage domain?
Several different ways to solve this. One could use Excel and the Goal Seek or
make use of the Quadratic formula

Lower range of input by inspection must be zero
Upper range from Goal Seeking:
10 = 5.328 + 0.628
2

Results in an upper input of 1.582

(0,1.582) is the voltage input range

Checking
(1.582) = 5.328 +0.628
2
= 10.00

Name:______________________
7/9

Computer Exam begins.
Raw data is located in provided Excel document.

9 (15 Points) Struts are manufactured at a plant. The quality control engineer pulls off several
hundred struts to test. The strut length has been found to have a sample mean of 10.50 inches,
and a sample standard deviation of 0.005 inches. The scatter in the data is nearly random, i.e.,
Normal/Gaussian Distribution.
a. (5) Calculate the probability that the length of a random strut is less than 10.520 inches.
b. (5) Calculate the probability that the length of a random strut is greater than 10.485
inches and less than 10.515 inches.
c. (5) The company policy is to reject all struts with an absolute deviation of 2.75 standard
deviations from the mean. Calculate the percentage of struts that are rejected.

10 (20 Points) Professor P. Pete has always claimed that on the average, a student who does well
on homework should also do well on exams. Lets find out if this is really true or not by
comparing exam scores with the scores of a randomly chosen homework set (both sets of
scores are for the same students from the same semester of the same course).
a. (5) Correctly plot exam score (vertical axis) vs. homework score (horizontal axis). For
consistency, use scales from 0 to 100 on both the horizontal and vertical axes.
b. (8) Perform a regression analysis. On the same plot, plot the linear curve fit for exam
score as a function of homework score, as well as the upper and lower 95% linear curve
fits. Is there really a trend to standard engineering confidence level? Be sure you explain
your solution.
c. (7) Determine if the Exam Scores follows a Normal/Gaussian Distribution. Be sure you
explain your solution.

11 (10 Points) You are to determine if there is any significant statistical difference between the
techniques at 80% confidence. You can assume unequal variance.

12 (15 Points) A manufacturer of general aircraft dry vacuum pumps wishes to use the pumps in
a new sensor. Initially, eight pumps are tested to failure with these results (in hours of
operation).
a. (2) Estimate the sample mean and the 99.7% confidence interval of the true mean.
b. (5) Estimate the precision interval to a 99.7% confidence level on the sample mean.
c. (3) Determine the overall uncertain on the mean failure time to a 99.7% confidence
write solution in standard engineering format.
d. (5) How many more data points would be needed to improve the confidence interval
to be within 25 hours? Assume the mean and standard deviation do not change.


RAW DATA IS LOCATED IN PROVIDED EXCEL DOCUMENT.