Question

A student is given a rock that is known to have a mass of 436.8 grams. She measures the mass of the rock three different times with the following results: 460.9 g, 461.4g, 459.0 g. What can be said about her precision and accuracy?

Answer 1

The student's measurements have good precision but lower accuracy due to a systematic error.

Step-by-step explanation:

The student's measurements of the rock's mass are 460.9 g, 461.4 g, and 459.0 g. The known mass of the rock is 436.8 g.

Precision refers to the consistency and reproducibility of the measurements, while accuracy refers to how close the measured values are to the known value. In this case, the student's measurements are fairly close to each other, indicating good precision. However, they are consistently higher than the known value, suggesting a systematic error and lower accuracy.

In summary, the student's measurements have good precision but lower accuracy due to a systematic error.