scale

You find an old bathroom scale at a garage sale on your way home from getting a physical exam from your doctor. You step on the scale, and it reads 135 lb. You step off and step back on, and it reads 134 lb. You do this three more times and get readings of 135 lb, 136 lb, and 135 lb.

a. What is the precision of this old bathroom scale? Would you consider this adequate precision for the type of measurement you are making?

b. The much more carefully constructed and better-maintained scale at the doctor’s office reads 126 lb. Assuming that you are wearing the same clothes that you wore when the doctor weighed you, do you think the accuracy of the old bathroom scale is high or low?