Final answer:
C. 9.797.The error made by the scientist in measuring the acceleration due to gravity at the Equator should be rounded to option C, which is 9.797 m/s².
Step-by-step explanation:
The correct answer is option C. To round the error made by the scientist in calculating the value of acceleration due to gravity (g), we subtract the calculated value from the known value.
That is, error = gcalculated - gknown = 9.7971 m/s² - 9.78 m/s² = 0.0171 m/s². When rounding the value of g to match the provided options, we maintain the same level of precision, thus the error should be rounded to the nearest thousandth, making the answer 9.797 m/s².
The scientist measured g to be 9.7971 m/s² at the Equator, while the known value at that latitude is 9.78 m/s². To determine which value the error should be rounded to, we look at the nearest option. The nearest option to the measured value is 9.798. Therefore, the error should be rounded to 9.798.