| The standard deviation of the mean of  N measurements, each with
            the same
            standard deviation s,  is
               , 
            i.e. the more measurements we take the more precise is our estimate
            of the mean. 
              This is as expected. However, it is only true if the
            measurement uncertainties are independent, i.e. there is no systematic
            error included in the uncertainty s,
            such as instrument calibration error, zero offset, etc. |