Question

A student was given a cube of metal known to have a mass of 125.0 grams. She measures the mass of the metal three different times with the following results: 125.1g, 124.8g, 125.3g. What can be said about her precision and accuracy?

a) High precision and high accuracy
b) Low precision and low accuracy
c) High precision and low accuracy
d) Low precision and high accuracy

Answer 1

The student's measurements demonstrate high precision and low accuracy.

Step-by-step explanation:

The student's measurements of the cube's mass were 125.1g, 124.8g, and 125.3g. To determine the precision and accuracy, we need to assess how close the measurements are to each other and to the true value. In this case, the measurements are quite close to each other, indicating high precision. However, they are not exactly equal to the known mass of 125.0g, indicating low accuracy. Therefore, the student's measurements demonstrate high precision and low accuracy, so the answer is option c) High precision and low accuracy.