7.31 Measurement Error When research chemists perform experiments, they may obtain slightly dif- ferent results on different replications, even when the experiment is performed identically each time. These differences are due to a phenomenon called "measure- ment error."

a. List some variables in a chemical experiment that might cause some small changes in the final response measurement.

b. If you want to make sure that your measurement error is small, you can replicate the experiment and take the sample average of all the measurements. To decrease the amount of variability in your average measurement, should you use a large or a small number of replications? Explain.