What is the smallest change in a measured value that an instrument can detect?

What is the smallest change in a measured value that an instrument can detect?

• A. Precision
• B. Sensitivity
• C. Resolution
• D. Accuracy

Answer: (C)

The smallest change a measuring instrument can detect is its resolution. It describes how finely the instrument can distinguish readings—essentially the size of the smallest increment you can observe on its output. For a digital readout that updates in 0.1-unit steps, changes smaller than 0.1 aren’t detectable, so the resolution is 0.1. This is different from precision (how consistently measurements repeat under the same conditions), accuracy (how close measurements are to the true value), and sensitivity (how much the output changes for a given change in input).

The smallest change a measuring instrument can detect is its resolution. It describes how finely the instrument can distinguish readings—essentially the size of the smallest increment you can observe on its output. For a digital readout that updates in 0.1-unit steps, changes smaller than 0.1 aren’t detectable, so the resolution is 0.1. This is different from precision (how consistently measurements repeat under the same conditions), accuracy (how close measurements are to the true value), and sensitivity (how much the output changes for a given change in input).