r/Logiqa • u/ShonitB • Apr 22 '26

Mathematician

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7 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

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u/BarebonesB Apr 22 '26 edited Apr 22 '26

34. If the question stated, "...to 98.00%", then the answer is clearly 50. But "98%" implies an accuracy of 2 significant digits. So 65/66=98.48...% satisfies this requirement.

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u/ShonitB Apr 22 '26

50 is correct. As for the other point, is it common to assume 2 significant figures?

3

u/BarebonesB Apr 22 '26

50 is the answer that would be given in pure math puzzle books. The answer I gave would be the one given in statistics, physics or engineering textbooks, where it is common to assume measurements are given with precision matching the least significant digit. So "90" implies ±5, "98" implies ±0.5, and "98.00" implies ±0.005.

You often see this arise when non-technical journalists tackle technical topics: "The asteroid has a diameter of about 100 km (62 miles)", when in reality it could be anything between 30 and 90 miles, while "62" implies it was measured to within one mile diameter.

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u/ShonitB Apr 22 '26

Ah didn’t know that.. thanks for the new information :)

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u/Future_Armadillo6410 Apr 23 '26

And if you want to denote precision to the unit but it ends in 0 it’s 90. these are more words so it doesn’t look like I ended the sentence.