Question

suppose that your bathroom scale reads your mass as 67 kg with a 3.0% uncertainty. what is the uncertainty in your mass? use 2 sig. digits.

Answer 1

The uncertainty in your mass, given the bathroom scale, would be 2. 0 kg.

How to find the uncertainty ?

To find the uncertainty in your mass, you can use the given percentage uncertainty. The formula to calculate the uncertainty ( Δm ) is:

Δ m = Percentage Uncertainty x Value

In this case, the percentage uncertainty is 3.0% (0.030 as a decimal), and the value is your mass, which is 67 kg.

`\[ \Delta m = 0.030 * 67 \, \text{kg} \]`

Now, calculate the uncertainty:

Δ m = 2.01 kg

Rounded to two significant digits, the uncertainty in your mass is approximately 2.0 kg.