Question

The standard diameter of a golf ball is 42.67 mm. A golf ball factory does quality control on the balls it manufactures. Golf balls are randomly measured to ensure the correct size. One day, an inspector decides to stop production if the discrepancy in diameter is more than 0.002 mm. What is the range of acceptable values?
42.668 mm to 42.670 mm
42.668 mm to 42.672 mm
42.670 mm to 42.672 mm
42.670 mm to 42.674 mm

Answer 1

THE ANSWER IS A:

This is the function:

f(x)=|42.67-x|.

42.670 -.002 =42.668

42.668 mm to 42.670

Explanation:

Production will be stopped if the difference in diameter is greater than 0.002 mm.

This difference can mean that the golf ball has a diameter more than 0.002 larger than 42.67 mm, or a diameter more than 0.002 smaller than 42.67. This is the reason for using an absolute value function.

 Absolute value represents the distance a number is from 0. For this function, we would want only the values where the function is less than 0.002.