The Uncertainty of Weighing Data Obtained with Electronic Analytical Balances

Weighing is a common task in any chemical laboratory and weighing data are associated with some uncertainty, as this is common with all other working procedures and their data. This paper presents the influence factors which are part of the combined measurement uncertainty of a mass determination and their interplay, namely the technical specifications of the balance (repeatability, nonlinearity, sensitivity tolerance, and temperature coefficient of the sensitivity) and the effect of air buoyancy. Depending on the net and gross weight, the densities involved (density of air and of the weighing object in relation to the density of the reference weights) and the uncertainties of these densities the relative uncertainty of weighing data is often in the 10^–5 to 10^–4 range (10 to 100ppm). It must be kept in mind that such low values can only be obtained with simple weighing goods, i.e. in the absence of disturbances such as electrostatic charges, air drafts, evaporation, or water adsorption phenomena.