Interpreting graphs and uncertainties

1. The length and width of a rectangle is measured as shown. If each length is measured to ± 1
cm calculate
a. The % uncertainty in length
1/20 x 100 = 5%
b. The % uncertainty in width
1/10 x 100 = 10%
c. The % uncertainty in area
% uncertainties add so % uncertainty = 15%
d. The area and its absolute uncertainty
Area = 200 cm2 % uncertainty = 15% = ΔA/A x 100
so ΔA = (15/100) x 200 = 30 cm2
2. The diameter of a ball of plasticine is measured 10 time as shown

Diameter/cm 3.53 3.50 3.51 3.47 3.49 3.53 3.51 3.48 3.50 3.52

a. What is the uncertainty in the measuring device?

Precision of measurement is to nearest 0.01 so uncertainty seems to be ± 0.01 cm
b. Calculate the mean value of diameter.
sum the values and divide by 10 mean = 3.50 cm
c. Calculate the uncertainty in the values.
(max – min )/2 = (3.53 – 3.47)/2 = 0.03 cm
3. The graph shows the results of measuring the mass of different numbers of apples.
a. Calculate the gradient of the line.

gradient = Δy/Δx = (360 – 160)/(3-1) = 100 gapple-1

b. Write an equation for the best fit line.

M = 100 N + 60

c. What could have caused the +ve intercept?

The mass of the container

d. What could have caused the outlier?

Maybe the apples were counted incorrectly or the bag with 3

apples was used twice. It could be that the 4 apple bag contained small apples but the other results
imply that apple size as constant.

© Chris Hamper, InThinking

www.thinkib.net/physics 1