If you had a more accurate ruler with divisions of 1mm (a standard ruler you would find) what would the absolute error be? (In cm)
you can estimate the tenth of a mm digit, so 1.4, or 1.6 mm would be correct readings.
Absolute error then could be as low as .01cm (difference between say 1.5 mm and 1.4mm)
The question is not well written, I would have given the question a D. Absolute error depends on the reference (generally accepted as valid), which is not give.
To calculate the absolute error in this case, we need to consider the difference between the measured value and the actual or true value.
In this case, the ruler has divisions of 1mm, which means that the smallest unit of measurement is 1mm. The absolute error would be half of this smallest unit, since the actual value could be anywhere within that range.
So, the absolute error would be 0.5mm.
To convert this to centimeters, we divide by 10 since there are 10mm in 1cm. Therefore, the absolute error in cm would be 0.05cm.