Thread: What is the difference between error and percent error?

I have error is equal to your experimental value minus your accepted value, while percent error is the absolute value of this error divided by accepted value (times by 100). Is this right? When is error generally used, and when is percent error generally used?

If you have a pressure gage that reads 0 to 100 psig and it actually reads 1 psig when there is zero pressure that is a 100% error. If the gage reads 100 psig when the actual pressure is 99 psig that is a 1% error. During a calibration against a precision gage, the actual and precision pressure readings can be recorded on a table or plotted to show calibration errors so that gage readings can be corrected in service. The quality of a gage may be specified as a percent of full scale (2% f.s., etc.) so that a proper gage can be selected for a given application. Expensive highly accurate gages are not necessary for every application.