Question

WHAT IS THE GREATEST POSSIBLE ERROR FOR 12.3

Answer 1

It's a silly question. Do you mean round-off error?

Answer 2

The greatest possible error is 1/2 the unit of measure. What is the unit of measure used in 12.3?

Answer 3

That's just not the case, as posed. If you are measuring the mass of the moon, and you get 12.3, what does that mean? We need a real question.

Answer 4

Perhaps you do not understand. This measurement is to the nearest tenth. Therefore the greatest possible error is 1/2 x .1 or .05
If you measure something to the nearest 1, the GPE is .5 and so on.

Answer 5

Right, IF you are talking about round off error. Are we? It's not in the problem statement.

Answer 6

No. NOT talking about rounding error. If I say it is 20 miles to the nearest town, that 0 is not significant. Therefore the unit of measure is 10 miles and the greatest possible error is 5 miles which means the distance to the nearest town is between 15 and 25 miles.

Answer 7

You have just defined round-off or rounding error. The limitation of our measurement device. Why are you saying that is not what it is? It is possible we just learned different words for it.

I thoroughly agree that the maximum possible round-off error is 1/2 the most exact measure used. In this case, 0.05.

I still think we need a better question. Thanks to @Mertsj for making me think about it harder.