A chemical engineer must report the average volume of a certain pollutant produced by the plants under her supervision. Here are the data she has been given by each plant: plant volume of pollutant Pitt New Bedford Oglala What average volume should the chemical engineer report? Be sure your answer has the correct number of significant digits.

15.3 L

Explanation:

The data she has been given by each plant are:

Plant volume of pollulant

Macon 0.519 L

Ogiala 44.67 L

Pitt 0.826 L

The chemical engineer must take into accout the number of significant figures.

The volumes of pollulant reported for Macon and Pitt plants have 3 signficant figures, while the volume of pollulant reported for Ogiala plant show 4 significant digits. So, the answer should not have more than 3 signficant digits.

On the other hand, the amount of decimal places of the result must not show more decimals than the least number of decimals among the numbers used to calculate the average, which is 2 (in the number 44.67).

So, the final answer will have 3 significant digits or 2 decimals which be least.

The average is calculated as the sum of the volumes of pollulant produced by every plant divided by the number of plant:

Average = (0.519 L + 44.67 L + 0.826 L) / 3 = 46.015 L / 3 = 15.338 L ≈ 15.3 L

So, in this case the average must be reported with 3 significant digits, which includes 1 decimal place.