Bryan estimates the cost of a vacation to be $730. The actual cost of the vacation $850. Find the percent error. Round to the nearest whole percent if necessary. Is the percent positive or negative? Explain.

Hello!

To start this answer off, and to show the way I was taught, I would like to made clear that Bryan's estimate is mathematically considered the "experimental value" and the actual cost is the "accepted value".

Considering these two factors, I can show the formula below.

Percent error = ([experimental value - accepted value] / accepted value) x 100

Now, I know that that seems a bit complex! But allow me to explain further.

We first will take the experimental value, also known as the estimate, and subtract that from the actual vaue, 850.

730 - 850 = - 120

As you can see, the difference is a negative number. We are going to take this difference and use its absolute value. So, now instead of - 120, we have 120.

Now we are going to divide the absolute value, 120, but the accepted value.

120 : 850 =.14117647058

Finally, we will multiply the decimal value by 100.

Your final answer, as I believe, should be 14% if we are rounding to the nearest whole.