Physics 1140 Summer 2011
Homework Set #1
(Solutions)
On a Separate sheet of paper, answer each of the following questions showing any work that you do for each
question.
1.
Give the number of Significant Figures in the following measurements:
a. 6.02 m
3 Sig Figs
b. 0.0031 in
2 Sig Figs
c. 400 m/sec
1, 2, or 3… Ambiguous
d. 204.0089 m/sec2
7 Sig Figs
e. 7 km
1 Sig Fig
2. Rewrite the following measurements in the proper “Standard Format”:
a. 6.3 + 0.364 cm
6.3 + 0.4 cm
b. 801 + 22 mi
800 + 20 mi
Better: (8.0 + 0.2) x 102 mi
c. 0.385 + 0.00731 kg
0.385 + 0.007 kg
d. 90.7302 + 0.148 m/sec
90.7 + 0.1 m/sec
or: 90.73 + 0.15 m/sec
e. Number 2.1 in Taylor: In Chapter 1, a carpenter reported his measurement of the height of a doorway
by stating that his best estimate was 210 cm and that he was confident the height was between 205
and 215 cm. Rewrite this result in the standard form.
210 + 5 cm
or: (21.0 + 0.5) x 101 cm
3. Give the measurement that the arrow below points to. Be sure to put write your answer in “Standard
Format”.
4.74 + 0.05 cm,
4.73 + 0.05 cm
(Anything that is reasonable)
4. Georgette is at Elitch Gardens enjoying a beautiful summer day; unlike the poor 1140 students back at
CU. Georgette eyes the roller coaster and decides, for the fun of it, to measure the height of the tallest
part. Her best estimate of the height is 21.4 m, but she is absolutely sure that the height is somewhere
between 20.8 m and 22.0 m. She then reads a sign that says this roller coaster is a replica of a model
roller coaster that is 0.3125 times smaller than the actual roller coaster. Calculate the height of the
model roller coaster along with its uncertainty. State your answer in the “Standard Format”.
H = 6.69 + 0.19 m
or: H = 6.7 + 0.2 m
5. Leonardo is building a fence on one side of his yard. He splits his measurement of the length of the fence
into two pieces due to a tree that makes it hard to get a straight-line measurement of the overall length.
He measures the first length to be 16.28 + 0.05 ft, and the second length to be 32.86 + 0.03 ft. What is
the total length of the fence with it’s corresponding uncertainty? Give your answer in “Standard Format”.
L = 49.14 + 0.06 ft