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, aswell as make sure that it is within 4 sentences and round your answer to the nearest tenth

Answer 1

To calculate Teresa’s percent error, we first find the absolute error, which is the difference between the estimated height and the actual height:

\[
\text{Absolute Error} = \text{Estimated Height} - \text{Actual Height} = 18 \, \text{feet} - 16 \, \text{feet} = 2 \, \text{feet}.
\]

Next, we calculate the percent error by dividing the absolute error by the actual height and then multiplying by 100:

\[
\text{Percent Error} = \left( \frac{\text{Absolute Error}}{\text{Actual Height}} \right) \times 100 = \left( \frac{2}{16} \right) \times 100 = 12.5\%.
\]

Thus, Teresa’s percent error is approximately **12.5%**.