A student estimated a mass to be 240g, but upon carefully measuring it, the actual mass was 250g. What is the percent error?

Question

Question 3 options:

10

4

40

.1

Answer 1

To calculate the percent error, you can use the following formula:

\[ \text{Percent Error} = \left( \frac{|\text{Measured Value} - \text{Actual Value}|}{\text{Actual Value}} \right) \times 100 \]

In this case:

• Measured Value = 240 g
• Actual Value = 250 g

Plugging in the values:

\[ \text{Percent Error} = \left( \frac{|240g - 250g|}{250g} \right) \times 100 \]

Calculating the absolute difference:

\[ |240g - 250g| = 10g \]

Now substituting back into the formula:

\[ \text{Percent Error} = \left( \frac{10g}{250g} \right) \times 100 = 0.04 \times 100 = 4 \]

So the percent error is 4%.

The correct answer is 4.