Question

david’s car has a defective odometer. when he drives to the mall, the odometer reads that he travelled a distance of 16.6 miles, but the true distance that he drives to the mall is 15 miles. what is the percent of error in the odometer reading, to the nearest hundredth?
%

Explanation:

Step1: Find the error amount

The odometer reading is 16.6 miles, and the true distance is 15 miles. The error amount is the absolute difference between the odometer reading and the true distance. So, error = |16.6 - 15| = 1.6 miles.

Step2: Calculate percent error

The formula for percent error is $\text{Percent Error} = \frac{\text{Error}}{\text{True Value}} \times 100\%$. Substituting the values, we get $\text{Percent Error} = \frac{1.6}{15} \times 100\%$.
First, calculate $\frac{1.6}{15} \approx 0.106666...$. Then multiply by 100% to get $0.106666... \times 100\% = 10.6666...\%$.

Step3: Round to the nearest hundredth

Rounding 10.6666...% to the nearest hundredth (two decimal places), we look at the third decimal place, which is 6. Since 6 ≥ 5, we round up the second decimal place. So, 10.67%.

Answer:

10.67%