Thread: Relative Error & Maximum Error

A car's fuel tank has a capacity of 65 litres. If this capacity is given to the nearest litre, find the degree of accuracy correct to 2 decimal places.

First step is finding the maximum error. What is maximum error, and how do I find it?

Hello sallyjs

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Originally Posted by sallyjs

A car's fuel tank has a capacity of 65 litres. If this capacity is given to the nearest litre, find the degree of accuracy correct to 2 decimal places.

First step is finding the maximum error. What is maximum error, and how do I find it?

If the capacity is given to the nearest litre, then this means that the true capacity lies anywhere between litres and litres. The maximum error is therefore litre.

I'm not certain how the degree of accuracy is to be expressed, but a percentage would be quite a sensible way. So we need first to express the maximum error as a percentage of the stated capacity - that's

%

%, correct to 2 d.p.

and then subtract this from % to give the degree of accuracy. . So the figure is % accurate.

Grandad