Question

Three baseball fans estimated the top speed of a baseball pitcher’s fastball. The table shows their estimates. The top speed of the pitcher’s fastball is known to be 102 mph. Which statements are true?

Name Speed guessed (mph)
Lisa 97
Justin 93
Mohammed 105
Choose exactly two answers that are correct.

A.
Justin’s estimate had a lower percent error than Lisa’s.

B.
Mohammed’s estimate had the lowest percent error.

C.
Lisa’s estimate had about a 4.9% error.

D.
Justin’s estimate had a –9% percent error.

Answer 1

Pecent error is the percent difference between the expected and experimental values. We need to compute for the percent error of the three fans' esitmates as follows: Lisa: [(102 - 97)/ 102] x 100% = 0.049 x 100% = 4.9% Justin: [(102 - 93)/ 102] x 100% = 0.088 x 100% = 8.8% Mohammed: [|(102 - 105)| / 102] x 100% = 0.029 x 100% = 2.9% From these results, we can conclude that i. Mohammed had the lowest percent error. ii. Lisa's estimate has approximately 4.9% Therefore, the statements that we true are B and C.