In an evaporation of water experiment, the initial mass of water in a beaker was 10.5775 + / - 0.0002 g. After some time, the mass of the water in the beaker was 10.3005 + / - 0.0002 g. The mass evaporated is calculated by subtracting the final mass from the initial mass. What is the final propagated error on the evaporated mass?

Question

Enrique

Physics

6 January, 12:01

In an evaporation of water experiment, the initial mass of water in a beaker was 10.5775 + / - 0.0002 g. After some time, the mass of the water in the beaker was 10.3005 + / - 0.0002 g. The mass evaporated is calculated by subtracting the final mass from the initial mass. What is the final propagated error on the evaporated mass?

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Carley Ballard · Answer 1

The theory of propagation of error in case of addition and subtraction states that maximum errors are added in absolute terms in both the operation of addition and subtraction. So in this case the subtracted value will be

10.5775 - 10.3005

=.2770 g

errors will be added ie in subtracted value we can find error to the tune of

.0002 +.0002 =.0004 g

So the subtracted value will be written as

.2770 ±.0004