Question #8fc5c

1 Answer
Nov 24, 2014

Error is the amount of deviation from accurate values.

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theoretical value is also called actual, known or true value.
Experimental = Values obtained from the lab.
Theoretical = Values obtained from some authority -> book, table, list, official, etc.
(+) A positive percent error indicates your experimental values are lesser than the theoretical values.
(-) A negative percent error indicates your experimental values are greater than the theoretical values.

After heating a 10.00 g sample of potassium chlorate, a student obtains an amount of oxygen calculated to be 3.90 g. Theoretically, there should be 3.92 g of oxygen in this amount of potassium chlorate. What is the percent error in this experiment?

Experimental amount of Oxygen = 3.90g

Theoretical amount of Oxygen = 3.92 g

# (3.92 g - 3.90g) . 100 // 3.92 g #

# (0.02 g . 100) // 3.92g #

# 2g // 3.92 #g = 0.51%