Question

An engineer estimated the weight of a steel beam to be 600 pounds. The actual weight of the beam was 639 pounds. Find the absolute error and the percent error of the engineer's estimate. If necessary, round your answers to the nearest tenth.

Answer 1

Answer:

Absolute error = 39 pounds

Percent error = 6.10%

Step-by-step explanation:

We are given that the actual weight of the beam was 639 pounds while its estimated weight was 600 pounds.

We can find the absolute error by subtracting the original weight from the estimated weight.

Absolute error = 639 - 600 = 39 pounds

Next, we will use the following formula to find the percent error.

Percent error = (Estimated value - actual value / actual value) * 100

Percent error = 639 - 600 / 600 * 100 = 6.10%

Answer 2

Answer:

Absolute: 39 pounds

Relative: 6.5%

Step-by-step explanation:

To find the absolute difference, we simply have to see by how much pounds the estimation was off.

The real measure was 639 pounds, the estimated weight was 600.

D = 639 - 600 = 39 pounds.

For the percent of error, we divide the absolute difference (39) by the real value (639) and we'll get the % of error.  So,

%D = 39 / 600 = 0.0610, so 6.1%

We don't need to round it to the nearest tenth, since it's already to that precision level.