Correct option is (D)
To calculate the percentage error in the resistivity of the
material of the wire, we need to
understand the formula for resistivity. The resistivity of a wire is
given by:
where:
- is the
resistance
- is the
cross-sectional area of the
wire
- is the
length of the wire
The cross-sectional area of the wire with
radius is:
We can plug this into the equation for resistivity to get:
Now, to find the percentage error in resistivity, we need to
find the percentage errors in
, , and and then use the
following rule for
combining errors:
For a given function, , where are the measured
quantities with
possible errors, the percentage error in , denoted as , can be
approximated by adding the
relative percentage errors of the input quantities. If has the form of
a product and quotient
of the measured quantities as in our case (), the percentage
error in is given by:
Where , , and are the
percentage errors in each
measured quantity respectively.
For our case:
- The percentage error in radius is given by
the error in
divided by
the average radius and
then multiplied by 100:
- The percentage error in resistance is:
- The percentage error in length is:
Now let's calculate each:
However, since the area is proportional
to , the percentage
error in will be twice
the percentage error in
. Thus:
Finally, we add the percentage errors to find the percentage
error in resistivity:
This calculation gives us a value close to 39.91%, which
means the correct option is closest
to this value. Thus, the best answer is:
Option D