Math PicnicEvery sheet is a promise

How accurately to report worksheets

A ruler that reads to the nearest 0.1 cm cannot give you 8.25 cm. These free printable worksheets ask how many digits a measurement is entitled to — the question a calculator never asks and always answers wrongly.

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How accurately to report
How accurately to report worksheet — Totals and readings, free printable with answer key

The answer key prints on a separate page.

What's on this sheet

An answer can be arithmetically right and still be a false claim. Add three weights from a scale that reads to the nearest half kilogram and the total is entitled to one decimal place: 18.0 kg says the scale was read to 0.1, 18 kg throws away a digit it really gave, and 18.00 kg claims a scale nobody owns. All three are the same quantity and only one is an honest report.

Why this sheet works

The second kind of question turns it around and asks which of four readings a tool could NOT have produced. Three of them sit on its scale and one is finer than it, so the question cannot be answered by spotting the odd number — only by checking each reading against the step the tool actually has.

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