Environmental Science: Earth as a Living Planet (9th Edition)

Published by Wiley
ISBN 10: 1118427327
ISBN 13: 978-1-11842-732-3

Chapter 2 - Science as a Way of Knowing: Critical Thinking about the Environment - Study Questions - Page 41: 4

Answer

Student A found the distance to be 0.3827 in., which is further away from the accepted value of 0.3937 in. than the measurement made by student B, who found it to be 0.39 in. Therefore, student B's measurement is more accurate. If student B measured the distance as 0.3900 in., this measurement would be both more accurate and more precise than their previous measurement of 0.39 in., as it has an additional significant figure and is closer to the accepted value.

Work Step by Step

Accuracy refers to how close a measured value is to the true or accepted value, while precision refers to how reproducible a measurement is. Student A found the distance to be 0.3827 in., which is further away from the accepted value of 0.3937 in. than the measurement made by student B, who found it to be 0.39 in. Therefore, student B's measurement is more accurate than student A's measurement, as it is closer to the accepted value. Precision is determined by the number of significant figures in a measurement. Student A's measurement has four significant figures, while student B's measurement has only two significant figures. Therefore, student A's measurement is more precise than student B's measurement, as it has more significant figures. If student B measured the distance as 0.3900 in., this measurement would be both more accurate and more precise than their previous measurement of 0.39 in., as it has an additional significant figure and is closer to the accepted value.
Update this answer!

You can help us out by revising, improving and updating this answer.

Update this answer

After you claim an answer you’ll have 24 hours to send in a draft. An editor will review the submission and either publish your submission or provide feedback.