AQA GCSE Chemistry · 8462
Specification 4.8.3.6 · Paper 2
Revise: Instrumental AnalysisSensitivity does not mean that the equipment is fragile or easily affected.
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GCSE Chemistry · key term
The ability of a method to detect or measure a very small amount of a substance.
Used by AQA, Edexcel and OCR
Specification 4.8.3.6 · Paper 2
Revise: Instrumental AnalysisSensitivity does not mean that the equipment is fragile or easily affected.
Specification 9.8C · Paper 2
The ability of a test to detect a small quantity of a substance or a small change in its amount or concentration.
Revise: Instrumental MethodsGreater sensitivity therefore means that a substance may be detected even when there is too little of it to give an obvious result in a test tube.
Specification C4.2f · Paper 2 (Foundation), Paper 4 (Higher)
The ability of a method to detect small amounts of a substance or small changes in its amount.
Revise: Instrumental AnalysisInstrumental methods are particularly valuable when a sample is tiny, many samples must be analysed, or a measurement must be made more objectively than is possible by eye. Their three central advantages are sensitivity, accuracy and speed.
Paper 1 (Foundation), Paper 2 (Foundation), Paper 3 (Higher), Paper 4 (Higher)
The ability of a method to detect a substance even when only a very small amount is present.
Revise: Advantages of instrumental methodsSensitivity and accuracy answer different questions: can the substance be detected? and how close is the result to the true value?
If asked for advantages of instrumental analysis, state the named improvement and explain it: for example, “greater sensitivity means a smaller quantity of an ion can be detected”.
Do not confuse sensitivity with accuracy. Sensitivity concerns detecting small quantities or changes, whereas accuracy concerns closeness to the accepted value.
If asked for advantages of instrumental analysis, name sensitivity, accuracy and speed, then explain what each means.
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