Pipette Verification

Pipettes are commonly used in the biochemistry laboratory and in most cases, users make the assumption that these "instruments" are fully functional, but this is not always the case. Pipettes are dropped or mistreated and this can result in the pipette requiring recalibration. At the beginning of any research project, it is highly recommended (ie. DO IT) that you "verify" that the pipette is working properly. An extensive discussion of this can be found here...but for research purposes, the verification procedure can be significantly less involved.

Before beginning the validation process, we must acknowledge the concepts of accuracy and precision. Below are two figures showing the "target grouping" model describing accuracy and precision (see Wiki for more details):

high accuracy low precision

low accuracy high precision

This target grouping model makes it clear that there is a "correct" or "best answer" which is often referred to as the "true" value. In the two cases above, the true value is the center of the target. When one is highly accurate this means that you can reproduce a "measurement" multiple times and get nearly the same answer, but it does not necessarily mean that the value is close to the true valve (demonstrated by the figure on the right). If multiple measurements are averaged together, you may get an answer that is "highly precise"

File:Accuracy and precision.png

that there are two sources of error:

1) Systematic

2) Instrumental

Recommended Verification Procedure using Gravimetric Test