Question

The accepted length of a steel pipe is 5.5 m. How do you calculate the percent error for each of these measurements?

a. 5.2 m
b. 5.5 m
c. 5.7 m
d. 5.1 m

Answer 1

A. -5.5%
B. 0.0%
C. 3.6%
D. -7.3%

Explanation:

The formula for percent error is:

% error = `(x_(measured)-x_(true))/x_(true)*100%`

Our `x_(true)` value is 5.5 m. All we do now is solve for % error by plugging in each result. The result must be two significant figures.

A. % error = `(5.2 m -5.5 m)/(5.5 m)*100%=-5.5%`

A. % error = `(5.5 m -5.5 m)/(5.5 m)*100%=0.0%`

A. % error = `(5.7 m -5.5 m)/(5.5 m)*100%=3.6%`

A. % error = `(5.1 m -5.5 m)/(5.5 m)*100%=-5.5%`