Calibration

Calibration
Learning Objectives
After completing this module, the student will be able
to
explain the purpose of calibration

find a calibration curve using the Excel function
trendline
write a macro in Excel
explain the meaning of R2
explain sources of error when estimating the
independent variable value
find a confidence interval for the independent
variable value
Knowledge and Skills
trendline calculation
linear regression
coefficient of determination
calibration
Prerequisites
linear equation
average and standard deviation
normal distribution
Citation: Neuhauser, C. Calibration

Created: October 18, 2009 Revisions:
Copyright: 2009 Neuhauser. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike License, which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, and allows others to translate, make remixes, and
produce new stories based on this work, provided the original author and source are credited and the
new work will carry the same license.
Funding: This work was partially supported by a HHMI Professors grant from the Howard Hughes
Medical Institute.
Page 1
Pre-assessment
Before completing the module test whether you master the prerequisites. Linear
Equation
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Find the equation of a horizontal line that goes through the point (2,4).
Find the equation of a vertical line that goes through the point (-1,3).
Determine the equation of the line passing through (-2,1) and (3,-1/2).
Determine the equation of the line passing through (1,-2) and (-2,4).
Determine the equation of the line with slope 3 and vertical intercept (0,2).
Determine the equation of the line passing through (-1,-1) and parallel to the line
passing through (0,1) and (3,0).
y 2x 1
7. Graph of the line given by the equation
.
3x 4y 1 0
8. Graph the line given by the equation
.
Average and Standard Deviation
9. Find the average and sample standard deviation of the following data set:
2,4,5,6,6,7,8
10.Write down the equation for calculating the average and the sample standard
x1 , x2 ,..., xn
deviation of a data set of size n:
Normal Distribution
11.Suppose X is normally distributed with mean 2 and standard deviation 1. Find (a)
the 75th percentile, (b) the 95th percentile, and (c) the 99th percentile.
12.Suppose X is normally distributed with mean 3 and variance 4. Find the
P(1 X 4)
probability that X is between 1 and 4, that is, find
.
13.Suppose X is normally distributed with mean -1 and standard deviation 4. Find an
interval centered about the mean so that with probability 0.95 X is contained in
that interval.
14.Suppose that the number of seeds a plant produces is normally distributed with
mean 142 and standard deviation 31. Find the probability that a randomly
sampled plant will produce more than 200 seeds.

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Calibration
According to the NIST handbook
(http://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/handbook/pmd/section1/pmd133.htm), [t]he goal of
calibration is to quantitatively convert measurements made on one of two
measurement scales to the other measurement scale. The relationship between
two measurements is used to convert one measurement into the other
measurement. You saw one such example in your chemistry lab where you
measured absorbance to find the concentration of an unknown sample. In this case,
the relationship between absorbance and concentration was linear. You derived the
relationship by measuring absorbance of standard samples of known concentration.
The resulting line is called calibration curve. The basis for the calibration curve is
Beers Law, which states that there is a direct linear relationship between
absorbance (A) and concentration (c): When if we graph absorbance as a function of
concentration, a straight line with positive slope provides a good fit. To illustrate
this, we provide in the following table absorption measurements of standard
samples:
Concentration
[mole L-1]
0
20
40
60
80
Absorbance
0
0.2356
0.4725
0.7127
0.9507
If we graph the data points and fit a straight line through the points (Figure 1), we
find that the equation of the straight line is
A 0.0119c 0.0014

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Figure 1: Straight line fit
This curve is called a standard curve and is used to infer the unknown concentration
of a solution. For instance, if we find that the absorbance A of an unknown solution
is 0.6386, we find for the concentration c
0.6386 (0.0014)
53.8
0.0119
The data in our example fits Beers Law extremely well. The data was generated
using a Virtual Lab on Spectrophotometry
(http://www.chm.davidson.edu/vce/Spectrophotometry/UnknownSolution.html).
When data are obtained in actual lab experiments, measurement errors need to be
taken into account.
A Model for Linear Calibration

We assume in the following that we measure a signal y that depends linearly on a
quantity x. We call the quantity x the independent variable and the quantity y the
dependent variable. We assume that we measure x without error and that the
quantity y is measured with an error that is normally distributed with mean 0 and
standard deviation . The relationship between the two quantities is then

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y a bx
To get a sense for the measurement uncertainty when inferring the quantity x from
the measurement y, we begin with simulating an experiment in which we have a set
of n standard samples and for each sample we measure the signal m times.
In-class Activity 1
In the spreadsheet CalibrationWorkbook under the tab Simulation, you will find
x 10,20,40,60,80
the simulation of standard samples with values
a 0
and 90 and where
b 1
the intercept
and the slope
. Each signal is measured 3 times. The
simulated data are in the gray-colored box. The input parameters for the slope, the
intercept, and the standard deviation s.d. for the error are in the yellow-colored box.
The trendline is calculated using the Excel function LINEST. (This function is difficult
to use and you will not need to learn how at this point.)
To investigate how the estimated value of the independent variable x depends on
the error , we proceed as follows. We assume that the (unknown) value of the
y ax b
independent variable x is equal to 50 (Cell F11). Using the equation
a1
with
b 0
and
with s.d. 1, we can calculate the measured value of the quantity y
(Cell F12). We can then use the estimated trendline to find the estimate for x (Cell
F13) . The graph displays the simulated data from the calibration experiment, the
trendline, and the data point corresponding to the unknown sample.
When you press F9, you will see that Excel runs another simulation. By repeatedly
pressing F9, you can get a sense for the variability of the estimated value of x in our
simulation experiment. It is tedious to record manually the values of repeated
simulations. Excel has a feature, called Macro, that records repeated key strokes.
Lets write a macro to record the outcome of repeated simulations for the estimate
of x.
(a) To write a macro to simulate values of x, proceed as follows:
1. Open the Developer tab and click on Record Macro in the Code group.
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2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Give the macro a name and select a key, for instance, Ctrl-a works.
Select the Home tab.
Copy the value of x from Cell F13.
Paste the value of x into Cell Q3 as Paste Value.
Click on Insert in the Cells group and click on Shift cells down in the
Insert window.
7. Go to the Developer tab and click on Stop Recording in the Code group.
If you press Ctrl-a, the simulated values will be copied into your spreadsheet in
Column Q. Repeat the simulation 100 times. (The numbers in Column P help you
keep track of the simulations.)Sort the simulated values from Smallest to Largest.
Find the middle 90%.
x 15
(b) Repeat the simulation when
. Are the inferred values of x more or less
x 50
spread out compared to when
(c) Change the standard deviation to see how an increase/decrease in the

measurement error affects the uncertainty in the calculation of x.
Figure 2: Screenshot of the simulation. The input parameters are listed in the yellow box; the
simulated data are listed in the gray box; the estimated values of the slope and vertical
intercept are listed in the green box together with the calculation of the unknown quantity x
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Page 6
based on the measurement of the unknown sample y. The graph displays the simulated data
(blue symbols), the trendline (black line), and the unknown measurement (red data point).
Linear Regression
When two quantities are linearly related, such as absorbance and concentration, a
straight line provides a good fit. In Excel, a straight line can be fitted using the
Trendline option. The Trendline option is under the Layout in the Chart Tools.
When clicking on the blue triangle under Trendline and choosing More Trendline
Options, a window opens that offers additional options, such as Display Equation
on chart and Display R-squared value on chart. We already know the meaning
of the Equation. We will now look at the meaning of R-squared.
y a bx
Assume a linear model
where the error has mean 0 and standard
(xj ,yj ) j 1,2,...,n

deviation . We obtained data points
,
, and used the Trendline
option to fit a straight line. This results in estimates for the slope and the intercept.
a
We denote the estimated value of the intercept by and the estimated value of the
b
slope by
How does Excel estimate the slope and the intercept?

The method that Excel uses to estimate the slope and the intercept is called method
of least squares. The method says: Find

n
j 1
and
)
yj (a bx
j
so that the expression

2
is as small as possible. We say that the sum of the squared deviations is minimized.
Expressions for the estimated intercept and slope can be given. It is not important
to memorize the expressions.
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The least square line (or linear regression line) is given by
y a bx
with

b
(xj x)(yj y)
j 1
(xj x)2
j 1
y bx
a
To measure how good the fit is we calculate a quantity called the coefficient of
(xj ,yj )
2
determination, which is abbreviated as R . For each data point
, we can
bx
j a
y
j
define
. We introduce the deviation of the measured y-values from their
yj y
mean,
, which we can write as
j ) (y
j y)
yj y (yj y
A somewhat lengthy calculation shows that the total sum of squared deviations
(yj y)2
j 1
can be written as a part that is explained by the linear model

(Explained) and a part that reflects the stochastic errors (Unexplained)
n
j y)2 (yj y
j )2
(yj y)2 (y
1j 14 2 4 3 1j 14 2 4 3 1j 14 2 4 3
Total
Explained
Unexplained
The ratio between the explained variation and the total variation is the coefficient of
determination
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Page 8
Explained
R2
Total
The coefficient of determination

the model.
R2
j y)2
(y
j 1
n
(yj y)2
j 1
is the proportion of variation that is explained by
In-class Activity 2
Return to the spreadsheet CalibrationWorkbook. Under the tab Simulation, you
have already worked on the simulation of standard samples with values
x 10,20,40,60,80
a 0
b 1
and 90 and where the intercept

and the slope
. Each signal
is measured 3 times. The simulated data are in the gray-colored box. The graph has
a small textbox where the equation of the trendline and the coefficient of
determination is listed. You will see that when you increase the standard deviation,
the coefficient of determination decreases. Give a verbal explanation as to why you
would expect this.
The Chemistry Calibration Lab

In your Calibration Lab, you were asked to prepare a calibration curve. The
spreadsheet CalibrationLab.xlsx will help you do the analysis. Open the
spreadsheet. The Calibration Lab Analysis sheet is set up so that you can enter your
data into the yellow cells. To calculate the calibration curve, enter the data from the
absorbance measurements of the standard samples into C4:C21 (Step 2). The
spreadsheet will calculate the slope and intercept in the cells I19 and I20,
respectively, (see blue cells and Step 3). In Step 4, the spreadsheet calculates the
coefficient of determination. Compare the values in the cell to the textbox in the
figure that has the same information.
(a) To include the uncertainty of the calibration curve in your lab report, record the
coefficient of determination together with the equation of the trendline. Explain in
words the meaning of the coefficient of determination.
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Page 9
(b) In the chemistry lab, you then determined the concentration of an unknown
sample based on the calibration curve. Enter the three measurements into cells
B25-B27 (Step 5). The spreadsheet is set up so that it calculates the estimated
concentration. Use paper and pencil to verify the result in Cell B 31 (estimated
concentration) the spreadsheet.
(c) While the theory is beyond this course, the spreadsheet is set up to calculate a
x*
confidence interval for the estimated concentration
. In Cell K25, you can set the
confidence level, for instance 95%. The lower and upper limits of the confidence
interval are listed in Cells K27 and K28, respectively. Record the confidence interval.
The Cell K26 contains the value of half the length of the confidence interval, which
x* Cx
Cx
we denote by
. We can thus report the result also as
If you want to read more about Linear Calibration, consult the statistics and data
analysis paper by Burke, S. Regression and Calibration. LC GC Europe Online
Supplement.
Homework
1. Find a linear regression line through the given points and compute the coefficient
of determination
x
y
-3.0
-6.3
-2.0
-5.6
-1.0
-3.3
0.0
0.1
1.0
1.7
2.0
2.1
2. To determine whether the frequency of chirping crickets depends on

temperature, the following data were obtained by Pierce, 1949 (The Songs of
Insects. Cambridge, Mass. Harvard University Press):
Temperature
(F)
Chirps/sec
69
70
72
75
81
82
83
84
89
93
15
15
16
16
17
17
16
18
20
29
Fit a linear trendline and find the coefficient of determination.

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3. To determine the glucose in a wine sample an enzyme spectroscopy method is

used. The calibration curve is obtained from the following data
Added glucose,
[glucose] (mM)
Absorbance
0.00
0
0.23
1
0.05
0
0.27
9
0.10
0
0.31
4
0.20
0
0.42
3
0.30
0
0.54
0
0.40
0
0.66
5
(a) Find the equation of the calibration curve and the coefficient of
determination.
(b) Suppose the absorbance of an unknown sample is measured as 0.356. Use
the calibration curve to estimate the glucose level.

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Page 11

Calibration

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Calibration

explain the purpose of calibration

Knowledge and Skills

Citation: Neuhauser, C. Calibration

Citation: Neuhauser, C. Calibration

Citation: Neuhauser, C. Calibration

Figure 1: Straight line fit

A Model for Linear Calibration

Citation: Neuhauser, C. Calibration

and 90 and where

(b) Repeat the simulation when

. Are the inferred values of x more or less

(c) Change the standard deviation to see how an increase/decrease in the

Assume a linear model

where the error has mean 0 and standard

(xj ,yj ) j 1,2,...,n

How does Excel estimate the slope and the intercept?

of least squares. The method says: Find

so that the expression

The least square line (or linear regression line) is given by

determination, which is abbreviated as R . For each data point

. We introduce the deviation of the measured y-values from their

, which we can write as

can be written as a part that is explained by the linear model

The coefficient of determination

is the proportion of variation that is explained by

and 90 and where the intercept

The Chemistry Calibration Lab

. We can thus report the result also as

2. To determine whether the frequency of chirping crickets depends on

Fit a linear trendline and find the coefficient of determination.

Citation: Neuhauser, C. Calibration

3. To determine the glucose in a wine sample an enzyme spectroscopy method is

Citation: Neuhauser, C. Calibration

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