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Date May 2022 Marks available 1 Reference code 22M.1.SL.TZ2.1
Level Standard level Paper Paper 1 Time zone 2
Command term Question number 1 Adapted from N/A

Question

The radius of a circle is measured to be (10.0 ± 0.5) cm. What is the area of the circle?

A.  (314.2 ± 0.3) cm2

B.  (314 ± 1) cm2

C.  (314 ± 15) cm2

D.  (314 ± 31) cm2

Markscheme

D

Examiners report

This question discriminated well at both HL and SL with many candidates choosing the correct option D. However, option B was also a popular choice particularly at SL. Candidates need to be aware that when performing a calculation e.g. the area as here, the uncertainty also has to be propagated - so a 5% uncertainty in the radius becomes a 10% uncertainty in the area. There were some comments on the G2s that the uncertainty should only have been given to 1sf but this is not always correct as uncertainties are given to the precision of the value, depending on the percentage calculated in the propagation.

Syllabus sections

Core » Topic 1: Measurements and uncertainties » 1.2 – Uncertainties and errors
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Core » Topic 1: Measurements and uncertainties
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