Question

A student estimated a mass to be 325g but upon carefully measuring it found the actual mass to be 342g what is the percent error?

Answer 1

5% because the formula is P= difference over original. the difference is 342-325
and then the original is 325 so 17/325 is 0.05 and move the decimal two spaces to the right and the answer is 5%

Answer 2

4.97%.

Explanation:

We have been given that a student estimated a mass to be 325 g but upon carefully measuring it found the actual mass to be 342 g. We are asked to find the percent error.

We will use percent error formula to solve our given problem.

`\text{Percent error}=\frac{|\text{Estimate-Actual}|}{\text{Actual}}\cdot  100`

`\text{Percent error}=(|325-342|)/(342)\cdot  100`

`\text{Percent error}=(17)/(342)\cdot  100`

`\text{Percent error}=0.0497076\cdot  100`

`\text{Percent error}=4.97076`

`\text{Percent error}\approx 4.97`

Therefore, the percent error is approximately 4.97%.