Common mistakes:

• Don't forget the sign of the answer. If the answer is negative, any positive answer is wrong.
• A ratio is a pure number; it has no units. If g_m/g_e = 0.0625 (which is 1/16), the answer CAPA wants is 0.0625 (NOT 1/16, NOT 1:16, NOT 0.0625:1)
• Enter numbers without commas. (Example: 234000, NOT 234,000)
• Put at most one space in your answer: between the number and the unit.
• Use the standard abbreviations for SI units: "kg" for kilograms, "N" for newtons. NOTICE that these abbrevations are case-sensitive: kilograms is abbreviated "kg", NOT "Kg"; Newtons is "N", NOT "n".
• CAPA usually wants 3 or more sig.figs. So, if the answer is 1/2, you must enter 0.500 (NOT 0.5) According to CAPA, the answer "200" has 1 sig.fig. It doesn't know whether you rounded 199.99 to 200 or 245 to 200, so it assumes the worst. To convince CAPA a number like "200" has more sig.figs. you can write it as 200.0 or 200. (notice the extra decimal point), or 2.00E2. The answer "0.0300" is no problem, CAPA knows it has 3 sig.figs.
• If working with angles in degrees, don't forget to set your calculator to degrees, not radians.
• Scientific notation has the format 3.25E-8 (=3.25 x 10^-8), NOT 3.25E10-8, and NOT 3.25 10E-8, NOT 3.25*E-8. Don't put any spaces anywhere in the scientific notation (NOT 3.25 E -8). When CAPA sees a space, it assumes that you are done with the number and are starting to write the unit.
• You don't need to worry about excessive precision. Usually, I set CAPA to accept any answer within 1% of the correct answer. Keep 3 or 4 sig.figs. during your calculations, so round-off error cannot build up to 1%. Three sig.figs. on numerical answers is almost always OK. But 2 sig.figs. is usually not enough. For instance, if the correct answer is 3.71E5 J, then the answer 3.7E5 J will produce a sig.fig. warning. CAPA will not the look at the number unless the sig.figs. are correct. So if you input 3.6E5 J, when the correct answer is 3.71E5 J, you will get the sig.fig. warning even though you answer is incorrect. A sig.fig. warning does not mean the answer is correct except for sig.figs.
• The characters /, *, ^, and _ are to be used only when constructing the units of an answer. For instance, if you want to indicate units of meters per second-squared (m/s²) on your answer, you would type m/s^2 after the numerical answer.
• Never use these symbols (/,*,^,_ ) to indicate the numerical answer. For instance, if the answer is a ratio = 1/6 = 0.167, you must input 0.167 (NOT 1/6). CAPA will interpret the use the / (slash-key) as an effort to indicate a unit, and it will give you the "incorrect units" warning.