Final answer:
Accuracy is the closeness of a measurement to the true value, while precision is the consistency of repeated measurements. It's possible to have precision without accuracy, meaning measurements are consistent but not necessarily correct. Precise measurements are reproducible but may not be close to the true value.
Step-by-step explanation:
Accuracy is defined as the measure of how close a measurement is to the correct or accepted value of the quantity being measured. In other words, it tells us how correct the measurement is. Precision, on the other hand, refers to the measure of how close a series of measurements are to one another, indicating the consistency or repeatability of the measurements.
Measurements that are both accurate and precise are ideal because they hit close to the true value consistently. However, it is very much possible to have precision without accuracy. This is akin to hitting the same spot on a dartboard consistently (precision) but not necessarily hitting the bullseye (accuracy).
Precise measurements are highly reproducible, showing little variance when the same quantity is measured several times under unchanged conditions. This reproducibility does not, however, guarantee that the measurements are accurate, i.e., close to the actual value.