A student measured the mass of an object and obtained the following results: 10.1 g, 11.0 g, and 10.5 g. The actual mass of the object was 10.6 g.
a. What should the student report as the mass of the object?
My answer: The student should report the mass as 10.5, because that is the average.
Does that sound correct? Also:
c. Was the student's mass measurement accurate? Explain your answer.
I'm not exactly sure how to answer this one or what they mean. Please help if you can! Thanks in advance.
i don't know but i say it was ok and i do agree with there answer.
Your answer for part a is correct. The student should report the mass of the object as 10.5 g since it is the average of the measured values.
Now, moving on to part c which asks if the student's mass measurement was accurate, let's discuss what accuracy means in the context of measurement.
Accuracy refers to how close a measured value is to the true or accepted value. In this case, the true mass of the object is given as 10.6 g.
To determine if the student's measurement was accurate, we can calculate the percent error. The percent error is calculated using the formula:
Percent Error = (|Measured Value - True Value| / True Value) * 100
Let's calculate the percent error using one of the measured values, let's say the first result of 10.1 g:
Percent Error = (|10.1 g - 10.6 g| / 10.6 g) * 100
= (0.5 g / 10.6 g) * 100
≈ 4.72%
By repeating this calculation with the other measured values, we can find the percent error for each one.
If the percent error is low, typically less than a few percent, it indicates a high level of accuracy. However, if the percent error is high, it suggests a significant deviation from the true value and a lower level of accuracy.
Considering the given data, we can calculate the percent error for each measurement and then evaluate the overall accuracy.