Question

Students perform a lab and predict that the period of the simple pendulum will be 3.15 seconds. When they measure the period, the actual value is 3.00 seconds.
What is the percent error of their prediction?

• A. 15.0 %
• B. 10.0 %
• C. 5.00 %
• D. 2.50 %
• E. 50.0 %

Answer 1

Answer: (C)

5.00 %

Absolute error in the time period, $\Delta T=3.15-3.00=0.15$ seconds

Actual time period, $T=3.00$ seconds

Thus percentage error in time period $=\frac{\Delta T}{T}\times 100=\frac{0.15}{3.00}\times 100=5.00$ %