Percy buys tomatoes that cost $0.58 per pound. He pays $2.03 for the tomatoes. Part 1 out of 3 Percy estimates he bought 4 pounds of tomatoes. Is Percy's estimate reasonable? Complete the explanation.
Percy probably made his estimate by rounding 0.58 per pound to 0.50, and rounding 2.03 for the price to 2.00. The 2.00/(0.50/lb) = 4 lb.
Percy's estimate is not unreasonable, but it is somewhat high (by more than 10%).
The cost, 0.58/lb, is closer to 0.6, a number that would cause Percy to estimate his purchase at 20/6 = 3 1/3 pounds.
When estimating, it is often useful to make an estimate of the error. This last estimate will be a little low, by about 3% due to the estimated cost and 1.5% due to the estimated total amount paid, for a total of about 4.5% low.
