Question

You measure water in two containers: a 10-mL graduated cylinder with marks at every mL, and a 1-mL pipet marked at every 0.1 mL. If you have some water in each of the containers and add them together, to what decimal place could you report the total volume of water?

Answer 1

To a tenth of a mililiter (0.1mL)

Step-by-step explanation:

When considering the precision of a measurement system, a more precise intrument needs to record smaller intervals of data; a better resolution. In this case we have a cylinder with a resolution of 1 mL. When we pour the amount of water we can't precisely measure anything less than 1 mL UNLESS it is added to the pipet described in this problem which records measurements of up to 0.1 mL (a tenth of a mililiter). Thus the total measurement system can only report a resolution of up to 0.1 mL