The density of a solid ball is to be determined in an experiment. The diameter of the ball is measured with…

The density of a solid ball is to be determined in an experiment. The diameter of the ball is measured with a screw gauge, whose pitch is $0.5 \mathrm{~mm}$ and there are 50 divisions on the circular scale. The reading on the main scale is $2.5 \mathrm{~mm}$ and that on the circular scale is 20 divisions. If the measured mass of the ball has a relative error of $2 \%$, the relative percentage error in the density is
  1. $0.9 \%$
  2. $2.4 \%$
  3. $3.1 \%$
  4. $4.2 \%$

Solution

Least count of screw gauge $=\frac{0.5}{50}$ $ =0.01 \mathrm{~mm}=\Delta r $ Diameter, $r=2.5 \mathrm{~mm}+20 \times \frac{0.5}{50}$ $ =270 \mathrm{~mm} $ $ \frac{\Delta r}{r}=\frac{0.01}{2.70} $ or $\frac{\Delta r}{r} \times 100=\frac{1}{2.7}$ Now, density $d=\frac{m}{V}=\frac{m}{\frac{4}{3} \pi\left(\frac{r}{2}\right)^3}$ Here, $r$ is the diameter. $ \begin{aligned} \therefore \quad \frac{\Delta d}{d} & \times 100=\left\{\frac{\Delta m}{m}+3\left(\frac{\Delta r}{r}\right)\right\} \times 100 \\ = & \frac{\Delta m}{m} \times 100+3 \times\left(\frac{\Delta r}{r}\right) \times 100 \end{aligned} $ $ \begin{aligned} & =2 \%+3 \times \frac{1}{27} \\ & =3.11 \% \end{aligned} $ Analysis of Question (i) Question is moderately difficult. (ii) In practical part, questions in JEE are asked from vernier callipers and screw gauge.

Asked in: JEE Advanced 2011 (Paper 2)

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