In a potentiometer, the EMF of a cell is directly proportional to the balancing length.
$$ \frac{E_1}{E_2} = \frac{L_1}{L_2} $$
Given,
$$ L_1 = 200\,cm,\quad L_2 = 150\,cm $$
The least count of the scale is $1\,cm$. Hence, the absolute error in each length measurement is
$$ \Delta L_1 = \Delta L_2 = 1\,cm $$
For a ratio, the fractional error is given by
$$ \frac{\Delta R}{R} = \frac{\Delta L_1}{L_1} + \frac{\Delta L_2}{L_2} $$
Substituting values,
$$ \frac{\Delta R}{R} = \frac{1}{200} + \frac{1}{150} $$
$$ \frac{\Delta R}{R} = 0.005 + 0.00667 = 0.01167 $$
Percentage error is
$$ \%\,\text{error} = 0.01167 \times 100 $$
$$ \%\,\text{error} = 1.17\% $$
Updated for JEE Main 2026: This PYQ is important for JEE Mains, JEE Advanced and other competitive exams. Practice more questions from this chapter.