Picture this: you’re playing basketball on the court and you shoot a shot. Your coach tells you that your shots were accurate but not precise. What does that even mean?
Precision = repeatability: meaning the more number of shots you can get that are closer together, the more precise you are. For example, if I’m throwing darts on a board and 4/5 shots land in the outer circle right next to each other, those shots were precise because they landed near each other.
Accuracy = degree of closeness: meaning that the closer the shots are to the target, the more accurate they are. For example, if my darts don’t land near each other, however they are all close to the target, the shots are accurate because they landed closest to the target.
There are cases where your shots can be both precise and accurate or neither of them. Particularly, if you throw your darts and they are all close to each other while being close to the target, they are both precise and accurate. If the dart are spread out randomly and no where near the target, they are neither accurate nor precise.
- Precision vs. Accuracy - August 4, 2020