Archaeologists studying meat storage methods employed by the Nunamiut in northern Alaska have developed a Meat Drying Index. Following is a slightly simplified version of the index given in the article “A Zooarchaeological Signature for Meat Storage: Rethinking the Drying Utility Index” (T. Friesen, American Antiquity, 2001:315–331). Let m represent the weight of meat, b the weight of bone, and g the gross weight of some part of a caribou. The Meat Drying Index y is given by y = mb/g. Assume that for a particular caribou rib, the following measurements are made (in grams): g = 3867.4 ± 0.3, b = 1037.0 ± 0.2, m = 2650.4 ± 0.1. a) Estimate y, and find the uncertainty in the estimate. b) Which would provide the greatest reduction in the uncertainty in y: reducing the uncertainty in g to 0.1 g, reducing the uncertainty in b to 0.1 g, or reducing the uncertainty in m to 0?
Archaeologists studying meat storage methods employed by the Nunamiut in northern Alaska have developed a Meat Drying Index. Following is a slightly simplified version of the index given in the article “A Zooarchaeological Signature for Meat Storage: Rethinking
the Drying Utility Index” (T. Friesen, American Antiquity, 2001:315–331). Let m represent the weight of meat, b the weight of bone, and g the gross weight of some part of a caribou. The Meat Drying Index y is given by y = mb/g. Assume that for a particular caribou rib, the following measurements are made (in grams): g = 3867.4 ± 0.3, b = 1037.0 ± 0.2, m = 2650.4 ± 0.1.
a) Estimate y, and find the uncertainty in the estimate.
b) Which would provide the greatest reduction in the uncertainty in y: reducing the uncertainty in g to 0.1 g, reducing the uncertainty in b to 0.1 g, or reducing the uncertainty in m to 0?
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