The electrical conductivity of a copper sample is reported as with an uncertainty of

PHYSICS · Subjective · A Level · Physics · Measurements and their errors · Measurements and their errors

Problem

The electrical conductivity of a copper sample is reported as

\sigma = (5.80 \times 10^{7})\,\text{S\,m}^{-1}

with an uncertainty of

\pm 0.20 \times 10^{7}\,\text{S\,m}^{-1}

. Resistivity is defined as

\rho = 1/\sigma

. (a) Calculate the resistivity

\rho

of the sample. (b) Determine the absolute uncertainty in

\rho

. (c) Write the resistivity with its uncertainty in scientific notation, stating the percentage uncertainty explicitly.