What is precision in math?
Your ruler has a precision of plus or minus 1 inch. So your measurements can be wrong by up to 1 inch in either the plus or minus direction. Therefore add 1 to each of your measurements before doing a calculation to get a max answer and subtract one before calculating to get your min answer. The true value is somewhere between the min and max value. r = 3 in h = 6 in V = pi * r^2 * h Vmax = pi * (r + 1)^2 * (h + 1) = pi * (4)^2 * (7) = 112pi Vmin = pi * (r – 1)^2 * (h -1) = pi * (2)^2 * (5) = 20pi The true volume is between 20pi and 112pi. This is the most accurate way to find the uncertainty but there are approximations that can make it easier. As you can see, even a fairly small uncertainty can explode into a huge difference after calculations.
