Question

a chemical engineer must report the average volume of a certain pollutant produced by the plants under her supervision. here is data she has been given by each plant: plant volume of pollutant cross creek 0.61 l pinecrest 13.19 l lincoln 0.681 l what average volume should the chemical engineer report? be sure your answer has the correct number of significant digits.

Explanation:

Step1: Recall average formula

The formula for the average (arithmetic - mean) of a set of numbers is $\bar{x}=\frac{\sum_{i = 1}^{n}x_{i}}{n}$, where $x_{i}$ are the individual values and $n$ is the number of values. Here, $n = 3$, $x_1=0.61$, $x_2 = 13.19$, and $x_3=0.681$.

Step2: Calculate the sum of the volumes

$\sum_{i = 1}^{3}x_{i}=0.61+13.19 + 0.681=14.481$.

Step3: Calculate the average

$\bar{x}=\frac{14.481}{3}=4.827$.

Step4: Determine significant digits

The least - precise measurement among the given data is $0.61$ (two significant digits). So, we round the average to two significant digits. Rounding $4.827$ to two significant digits gives $4.8$.

Answer:

$4.8$