Volume estimation of A4 sheet of paper

Robin Decker
April 18, 2018

1
CONTENTS 1

Contents
1 Introduction 2

2 Theoretical background 2
2.1 Measuring and precision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.2 Calculation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

3 Variables 2
3.1 Independent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3.2 Dependant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3.3 Controlled . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

4 Method 3
4.1 Tools and materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4.2 Explanations for tools and materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4.3 Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

5 Data 4

6 Data Analysis 4
6.1 Calculation of the mean value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6.2 Calculation of depth for a single sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
6.3 Volume calculation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
6.4 Error Propagation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

7 Conclusion 6

8 Evaluation 6
1 INTRODUCTION 2

1 Introduction
The aim of the following investigation is to precisely estimate the volume of
a single A4 sheet of paper, making use of multiple methods to increase the
precision of the calculations. The terms ‘depth’ and ‘thickness’ will be used
interchangeably to mean the total distance from the bottom face of a page
to the top face parallel to the edge of the page.

2 Theoretical background
2.1 Measuring and precision
To increase the precision of the calculation of the thickness of paper, multiple
sheets of paper will be stacked to decrease the overall percentage uncertainty.
This will increase the precision as the uncertainty must be divided by the
amount of paper measured, reducing the error per sheet of paper compared
to if a single sheet would have been measured.

2.2 Calculation
As this investigation is about the estimation of volume, the method of calcu-
lating the volume is important. Using the following formula one can calculate
the volume of a cuboid shaped object.

depth × width × height = volume

3 Variables
3.1 Independent
• Width

• Height

• Depth

3.2 Dependant
• Volume
4 METHOD 3

3.3 Controlled
• Number of sheets

4 Method
4.1 Tools and materials
• Paper ×30

• Micrometer

• 30cm Ruler

4.2 Explanations for tools and materials

Micrometer The micrometer was chosen to measure the thickness of paper
as it allows for the precise measurement of small outer diameters and lengths.

30cm Ruler The 30cm Ruler was chosen to measure the width and lengths
of the paper as it allows for the measurement of lengths up to 30cm. Though
not as accurate as the micrometer, other tools available such as the vernier
calipers were not capable of measuring the total lengths of the paper.

Paper ×30 More then one piece of paper will be used as a means to de-
crease the percentage accuracy of the measurement of the thickness. This
will occur because the absolute error of the measuring tool is applied to the
total measured depth, resulting in a decreased absolute error when retrieving
the thickness of a single page.
/sub

4.3 Process
1. Evaluate calibration offset of micrometer

2. Stack 10 pages of paper on top of each other

3. Measure thickness of all pages using micrometer

4. Add the offset of the micrometer to the value measured

totaldepth
5. Depth of one page will be 10
5 DATA 4

6. Using the ruler, measure the width and length of one sheet of paper
7. Calculate the volume of one paper sheet through the formula
totaldepth
× width × height = volume
sheets

8. Propagate the error to retrieve the error for the volume estimation
using the equation shown in section 6.4
9. Repeat steps 3-7 once with 20 pages and once with 30 page
10. Use the mean average of all data collected during the trails to calculate
the final thickness and volume.
11. Using the divergence between the min and max values collected from
the mean, calculate the new error.

5 Data

Width of sin- Height of sin-

Trial Pieces of paper Total depth (mm)
gle sheet (mm) gle sheet (mm)
1 10 210±0.5 297±0.5 1.2240±0.0005
2 20 210±0.5 297±0.5 2.4510±0.0005
3 30 210±0.5 297±0.5 3.6770±0.0005

6 Data Analysis
Using formulae explained in subsequent subsections, the following depths and
volumes can be calculated from data collected.

Trial Depth of single sheet (mm) Volume of single sheet (mm3 )

1 0.12240±0.00005 7633±34
2 0.12255±0.00003 7643±33
3 0.12257±0.00002 7644±32

6.1 Calculation of the mean value

The mean value can be calculated as follows:
7633mm3 + 7643mm3 + 7644mm3
= 7640mm3
3
6 DATA ANALYSIS 5

To calculate the min and max divergence for this mean value, simply
subtract the minimum and the maximum values for the mean as follows
7640mm3 − 7633mm3 = 7mm3
 
7640mm3 − 7644mm3  = 4mm3
 

To retrieve the divergence of the mean, use the largest value. As such,
the uncertainty of the mean is ±4mm3

6.2 Calculation of depth for a single sheet

Since the process described in section 4.3 uses multiple papers in a single
stack to increase the accuracy of the measurement, one must divide the total
depth by the amount of sheets in the stack. This however assumes that every
page is of the same thickness.
totaldepth
= depth
sheets

6.3 Volume calculation

To calculate the total volume of a single sheet of paper the following formula
is applied:
totaldepth
× width × height = volume
sheets
An example of this calculation with data collected during trail 2 with 20
sheets of paper would be:
2.451mm
× 210mm × 297mm = 7643mm3
20

6.4 Error Propagation

To calculate the error of the final estimate, the error must be propagated
from the previous values. For this, the following formula can be applied to
calculate the error of the volume of the object measured.
!
∆totaldepth ∆width ∆height
+ + · volume = ∆volume
totaldepth width height
An example of this calculation with data collected during trail 2 with 20
sheets of paper would be:
!
±0.0005mm ±0.5mm ±0.5mm
+ + · 2643mm3 = ±33mm3
2.451mm 210mm 297mm
7 CONCLUSION 6

7 Conclusion
As can be seen from the gathered results and the analysed data, paper has
a thickness of 0.12257mm ± 0.00002mm and volume of 7644mm3 ± 32mm3 .

8 Evaluation
Source of error Impact of error on Improvement
the conclusion
Page width and height The uncertainty of the The accuracy of the
width and height of the page width and height
paper is 4 magnitudes could be improved by
larger then the depth either placing multiple
measurement of a sin- pieces of paper side
gle piece of paper by side and measuring
their combined length
or using a ruler with
more length divisions