A student measures the time period of a pendulum as 2.0 s with an uncertainty of
Practice Questions
Q1
A student measures the time period of a pendulum as 2.0 s with an uncertainty of ±0.1 s. What is the absolute error in the time period?
0.1 s
0.05 s
0.2 s
0.01 s
Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions
A student measures the time period of a pendulum as 2.0 s with an uncertainty of ±0.1 s. What is the absolute error in the time period?
Correct Answer: ±0.1 s
Step 1: Understand what the time period of the pendulum is. It is the time it takes for the pendulum to complete one full swing.
Step 2: Identify the measured time period, which is given as 2.0 seconds.
Step 3: Look at the uncertainty provided, which is ±0.1 seconds. This means the measurement could be 0.1 seconds more or less than 2.0 seconds.
Step 4: Recognize that the absolute error is the same as the uncertainty in the measurement.
Step 5: Conclude that the absolute error in the time period is ±0.1 seconds.
Absolute Error – The absolute error is the uncertainty associated with a measurement, indicating the range within which the true value is expected to lie.
