PHYSICS · Subjective · A Level · Physics · Measurements and their errors · Measurements and their errors
Problem
During construction, four wall segments of a rectangular room were measured as follows:
Wall 1: 4.125 m Wall 2: 3.8 m Wall 3: 5.02 m Wall 4: 4.0 m
The architectural drawing specifies a perimeter of 17.50 m.
(i) Compute the measured perimeter of the room using the given wall lengths.
(ii) Express the perimeter with the correct number of significant figures.
(iii) Determine the algebraic difference between the measured perimeter (from part ii) and the specified value, writing the result to its proper precision.
(iv) Comment on whether the construction meets the specified perimeter within the limits of measurement precision, supporting your answer with numerical reasoning.