Mini Lab Finding the volume of any object with the form of a rectangular prism

Directions: Following the lab format, measure

L (length),W (width), and height (H) of a wood block, textbook or any other object that has a
form of a box, record your data in a table. Repeat the procedure 3 times.

L W H V Absolute Error % Relative Error

100.1 cm 40.0 cm 30.1 cm 120540.4 cm3 540.4 cm3 0.4503 %
100.0 cm 40.2 cm 30.15 cm 121203.0 cm3 1203.0 cm3 1.0025 %
100.2 cm 40.1 cm 30.1 cm 120942.4 cm3 942.4 cm3 0.7853 %

Calculate the volume (V). What is the absolute and relative error? What other mistakes did you
do?
Solution:

Formulas used in above calculations are as follows:

Volume of the rectangular object selected (V) = L × W × H

Let us assume actual dimensions of the object are L = 100 cm, W = 40 cm and H = 20 cm, then
actual volume is found to be 100 X 40 X 30 = 120000 cm3.

𝐴𝑏𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑒 𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟 = |𝑀𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 − 𝐴𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒|

𝑀𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 − 𝐴𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒

𝑅𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟 =
𝐴𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒
𝑀𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 − 𝐴𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒
𝑃𝑒𝑟𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟 = [ ] × 100%
𝐴𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒