Final answer:
True, the experimental value with the actual value, you use the percent difference formula: absolute value of (experimental value - actual value) × 100% / actual value. This calculation provides the percent error between your experimental results and the accepted values.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement is True. To compare your experimental value mtot,exp with the actual value mtot, calculate the percent difference. The formula for computing the percent difference is experimental value - accepted value × 100% / accepted value. If the experimental value is less than the actual or accepted value, the result is a negative error. Conversely, if the experimental value is larger, the result is a positive error. However, when reporting percent error, we use the absolute value of the difference to avoid confusion. For example, if the experimental value for a substance's density is 2.45 g/cm³ and the actual value is 2.70 g/cm³, the percent error would be absolute value of (2.45 - 2.70) × 100% / 2.70, which calculates to approximately 9.26%.