Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-course-of-the-year-1-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2017/section-a/2/solution

Write . The magnitude of the series RC impedance is
For independent small errors interpreted as standard uncertainties, propagation of uncertainty gives
The input uncertainties are , , and . Thus , and
The fractional uncertainty is . If the stated errors are instead worst-case bounds, their first-order contributions add in magnitude, giving approximately , or , rather than the quadrature result. Both conventions require the error interpretation to be specified.

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