Significant Figures and Scientific Notation

Front

What are significant figures?

Back

Significant figures are the digits in a number that contribute to its precision. This includes all non-zero digits, any zeros between significant digits, and trailing zeros in the decimal portion.

Front

How do you determine the number of significant figures in a measurement?

Back

Count all non-zero digits, any zeros between them, and trailing zeros in a decimal number. Leading zeros are not counted.

Front

Round 1009 to three significant figures.

Back

1010

Front

Round 1047.78 to three significant figures.

Back

1050

Front

What is the rule for addition and subtraction with significant figures?

Back

The result should be rounded to the least number of decimal places of any number in the operation.

Front

Calculate 1145.678 + 4.56 + 623.9789 + 78.1 using significant figures.

Back

1852.3

Front

Round 0.010229 to four significant figures.

Back

0.01023

Front

What is scientific notation?

Back

Scientific notation is a way of expressing numbers as a product of a number between 1 and 10 and a power of 10.

Front

Multiply (2.45 x 10^4) x (8.78 x 10^6) and express in scientific notation.

Back

2.15 x 10^15

Front

What is the rule for multiplication and division with significant figures?

Back

The result should have the same number of significant figures as the measurement with the least number of significant figures.