Percent Error Practice

1. A student measured the mass of some sodium chloride for a lab. The lab called
for 6.25 g (the accurate measurement), but the student measured 6.00 g instead.
What is the percent error for this mass?

2. A lab group turned in their experiment and had measured the mass of their sample
to be 3.15 g. The teacher had asked for them to make a sample of 3.10 g (the
accurate value). What is their percent error?

3. Students were measuring distances and found one to be 2.04 m. When they asked
the teacher if their measurement was correct, the teacher said, “Actually, it is 2.16
m.” What is the percent error?

4. A student measured a volume using a graduated cylinder. They read the volume
to be 9.01 mL. The teacher read the volume and said the accurate value is 8.97
mL. What is their percent error?

5. On a 92 point test, a student scored 87 points. What is their percent error?

6. A student was measuring the time it took for an experiment to take place. They
found the time to be 40 seconds. However, they had started timing a few seconds
after the experiment had started, and the actual time was 43 seconds. What is the
percent error?

7. A lab group was calculating the speed of a radio car. They measured the distance
traveled to be 6 meters and the time to be 3.5 seconds. Then they divided the
distance by the time to find the speed. The actual speed was 2.2 m/s. What was
their percent error?

8. In an experiment to determine density, students were measuring mass and

volume. They found the mass of their substance to be 8.12 g and the volume to
be 1.9 cm3. The actual density was 4.5 g/cm3. What was their percent error?

9. Some students were measuring the volume of a cube shaped wooden block. They
measured the length to be 5.08 cm, the width to be 5.09 cm, and the height to be
5.10 cm. The actual volume of the block was 15.3 cm3. What was their percent
error?

10. A student was measuring the ratio of a circle’s circumference and diameter. They
found the circumference to be 6.28 cm and the diameter to be 1.8 cm. The actual
ratio (circumference divided by diameter) was 3.14. What was their percent
error?