  Science students must deal with the errors inherent to all physical
measurements and be conscious of the necessity to express their as a best
estimate and a range of uncertainty. Errors are routinely classified as
statistical or systematic. Although statistical errors are usually dealt with
in the first years of science studies, the typical approaches are based on
performing manually repetitive observations. Here, based on data recorded with
the sensors present in many mobile devices a set of laboratory experiments to
teach error and uncertainties is proposed. The main aspects addressed are the
physical meaning of the mean value and standard deviation, and the
interpretation of histograms and distributions. Other activities focus on the
intensity of the fluctuations in different situations, such as placing the
device on a table or held in the hand in different ways and the number of
measurements in an interval centered on the mean value as a function of the
width expressed in terms of the standard deviation. As applications to every
day situations we discuss the smoothness of a road or the different positions
to take photographs both of them quantified in terms of the fluctuations
registered by the accelerometer. This kind of experiments contributes to
gaining a deep insight into modern technologies and statistical errors and,
finally, to motivate and encourage engineering and science students.
