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Percent Error

You get pulled over for going 65 mph in a 55 mph zone, but you are sure your speedometer only indicated 55 mph. Who's right? And how do you calculate the difference? This week is all about how things we observe, count and measure really don't exactly match the published, true and exact values. 

Percent error is used by scientists, engineers, managers, inventory stockers, business and finance analysts, and this week, you will also!

Beginner Level Math Class

We're going to explore working with percentages by working through example problems just like the ones in our workbook. We'll continue to practice with word problems and have fun learning!

Download your Percent #3 Workbook

To help you with your daily practice, I've put together a set of workbooks. You can use these or your own workbooks as long as it covers percent. Plan to complete 3-4 pages per day. After you complete the pages, you may check the answer key.

Percent Workbook #3: Part 1

I've put together a set of videos that will walk you through this workbook, so grab yours and let's work together. There are several videos that cover Workbook #3, and you'll find the rest of the videos in the next two sessions. Plan to complete 3-4 pages per day. After you complete the pages, you may check the answer key.

Intermediate Level Math Class

Are you ready to really practice your new math skills? Let's get really good at ratios, percent, proportions, fractions & decimals so we can use them for anything we need to!

Since the second class in the same week is for both Beginners and Intermediate students, I've posted the in both the Beginner section above and this section here. I hope this isn't too confusing! 

Math Activity: Percent Packet #5

This week, the Percent Packet focuses on Percent Error, which is a measure of how far off your measured or observed value is from the true (exact) value. For example, if you count 117 candies in your bag of M&Ms, but the bag has it printed that it should have 120 candies inside, there's a discrepancy. The more the difference, the greater the percent error. 

Scientists use this idea a lot in their experiments when they make their measurements and observations. In fact, they work really hard to make sure their errors are as small as possible. Scientists can spend months modifying their experiments and calibrating their instruments to get get that percent error as low as possible. 

Practice Problems

These are seven fun problems that you can practice setting up and running through your calculations. Give these a try first before watching the step-by-step instructional video below.

Math Activity: Guessing Game

How tall is that building? How much does that coin weigh? How old is that musician? Let's have fun taking guesses and then calculating how far off we are!

Math Project: Calculating your Speedometer's Error

The speedometer in your car depends on a couple of things in order to give an accurate reading. It’s important that you know how fast you’re driving, because you could be a lot further over the speed limit without even realizing it!

Speedometers work by measuring the number of revolutions of the axel to figure out the speed of your vehicle. Larger wheels rotate less to move the same distance (and smaller wheels rotate more), so if you change the wheel diameter, your speedometer accuracy will change. You can estimate the speedometer error if you know the diameter of the new and old tires. Some cars now have the ability to correct the digital speedometer by entering in tire size and tread.

Advanced Level Math Class

This week, we will expand on the ideas we discussed last week about how to set up a small business that is designed to grow and support the lifestyle you want. Advanced students will focus on doing calculations as well as working on practical application of arithmetic, fractions, decimals and percent by diving into the world of Personal & Business FINANCE.

You'll need to have a firm grasp of all operations with fractions, decimals and percent (operations like adding, subtracting, multiplying dividing) as well as converting between fractions, decimals and percent in order to go through the content covered in the Advanced level.

Math Lab: Running your First Business

You're going to start a small business! Let's walk through this one step at a time, making sure you understand not only the big picture of what it takes to set up and run a business but also see how the math works in this process. This is a great lab to do with your parents together. Use the packet outlined in class for the four videos below.

Starting a Food Truck Business

We’re going to start our own FOOD TRUCK business! Let’s learn the business side of things to be sure we make good financial decisions before selling our first taco. We'll discover how to do the math calculations for our loan payment, how much we'll earn per hour, and make our way through lots of important decisions like location, loan selection, and what to sell in our truck.

Percent Error Math Lab: Measuring the Speed of Light using a Chocolate Bar

One of the biggest challenges with measuring the speed of light is that the photons move fast… too fast to watch with our eyeballs.  So instead, we’re going to watch the effects of microwave light and base our measurements on the effects the light has on different kinds of food. 

Microwaves use light with a wavelength of 0.01 to 10 cm (that’s ‘microwave’ part of the electromagnetic spectrum). When designing your experiment, you’ll need to pay close attention to the finer details such as the frequency of your microwave oven (found inside the door), where you place your food inside the oven, and how long you leave it in for.

• chocolate bar (extra-large bars work best)
• microwave
• plate
• ruler
• calculator
• pencil and paper

Math Challenge

Each session, I have a special Math Challenge for you to work on after you work through some of the content in this area of math. The goal for these special math challenges is for you to be able to communicate your great ideas with your family and friends, without them being in a math class or having any knowledge of a specific area of math. You should be able to convey your great ideas to most people that are interested in hearing what you have to share. Many families find this part of the math program exciting for them to participate in with their student!

Solution to Percent Week #4 Math Challenge

• After the first player has removed 1 or 2 pennies, there will be a single gap somewhere in the circle. The second player now takes either one or two pennies from the opposite side of the circle so that the pennies are left divided into two equal groups.


• From now on, whatever the first player takes from one group, the second player takes the corresponding penny (or pennies) from the other group.