Answer to Question #212227 in Physics for Ruhul Amin

Question

Suppose two students measure the length of a piece of wire three times each. Student A obtains results of 8.09, 

8.10, and 8.11 centimeters. Student B obtains determines a length of 8.1 centimeters for all of his three 

measurements. Although the average length found for each student’s measurements was 8.1 cm, what 

qualitative statements can be made concerning the measurements made by students A and B?

Answer 1

1) They used different rulers: student A used a ruler with a scale that allows measuring 0.01 cm, student B used a ruler with 0.1 cm increments.

2) They used the same 0.01 cm increment rulers, but rounded their results differently: student A did not round to tenths, student B rounded to tenths.