Question

Teresa estimates that the height of a giraffe in a zoo is 18 feet. In fact, it is 16 feet tall. What is Teresa’s percent error? Use proportional relationships to solve the problem. Be sure to show all your work, provide your answer as a percentage, and round your answer to the nearest tenth.(4 points) for 6th grade

Answer 1

To find Teresa's percent error in her estimate of the giraffe's height, we can follow these steps:

1. Determine the absolute error: This is the difference between the estimated value and the actual value.

   \[ \text{Absolute Error} = \text{Estimated Height} - \text{Actual Height} \]

   Plugging in the numbers:

   \[ \text{Absolute Error} = 18 \text{ feet} - 16 \text{ feet} = 2 \text{ feet} \]

2. Calculate the percent error: Percent error is found by dividing the absolute error by the actual value, and then multiplying by 100 to convert it to a percentage.

   \[ \text{Percent Error} = \left( \frac{\text{Absolute Error}}{\text{Actual Height}} \right) \times 100 \]

   Substituting the known values:

   \[ \text{Percent Error} = \left( \frac{2 \text{ feet}}{16 \text{ feet}} \right) \times 100 \]

3. Simplifying the fraction:

   \[ \frac{2}{16} = \frac{1}{8} = 0.125 \]

4. Now multiply by 100 to find the percent:

   \[ \text{Percent Error} = 0.125 \times 100 = 12.5% \]

5. Final answer:

   Teresa's percent error in estimating the height of the giraffe is

   \[ \boxed{12.5%} \]

This represents how far off her estimate was, expressed as a percentage of the actual height.

Answer 2

shorter and make it one stanza

Answer 3

To find Teresa's percent error for the giraffe’s height, we subtract the actual height (16 ft) from her estimate (18 ft), giving an absolute error of 2 ft. We then divide the absolute error by the actual height and multiply by 100: \( \left( \frac{2}{16} \right) \times 100 = 12.5% \). Thus, Teresa's percent error is \( \boxed{12.5%} \).