Question

rules of 'Significant Figures'

Answer 1

27.34 has 4 significant figures

Answer 2

why 100 has only 1 significant figure ?

Answer 3

somehow i dont seem to get these, i knw the rules but they dont make sense

Answer 4

wat math class u in?

Answer 5

11th grade

Answer 6

1) ALL non-zero numbers (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9) are ALWAYS significant.

2) ALL zeroes between non-zero numbers are ALWAYS significant.

3) ALL zeroes which are SIMULTANEOUSLY to the right of the decimal point AND at the end of the number are ALWAYS significant.

4) ALL zeroes which are to the left of a written decimal point and are in a number >= 10 are ALWAYS significant.

Answer 7

can i have a medal if its right?

Answer 8

il give medal and fan u if u help me understand, why 100 has only 1 sig fig :)

Answer 9

that i dont seem to get, we are measuring 100, the next measure 101 will have 3 sig figs, the previous measure 99 has 2 sig figs, but why 100 has only 1 sig fig

Answer 10

The first number has only one significant figure (namely, the “1” in the beginning). Because this digit is in the “hundreds” place, this measurement is only accurate to the nearest 100 grams (i.e. the value of what we’re measuring is closer to 100 grams than it is to 200 grams or 0 grams).
The second number has three significant figures (the decimal makes all three digits significant, as we’ll discuss later). Because the last significant figure is in the “ones” place, the measurement is accurate to the nearest gram (i.e. the value of what we’re measuring is closer to 100 grams than it is to 101 grams or 99 grams).
The third number has five significant figures (as we’ll talk about later). Because the last significant figure is in the “hundredths” place, the measurement can be considered to be accurate to the nearest 0.01 grams (i.e. the value of what we’re measuring is closer to 100.00 grams than it is to 100.01 or 99.99 grams).

Answer 11

could u take me thru wid a practical example plz

Answer 12

im in 9th grade idk this stuff

Answer 13

lol sorry... it came from google

Answer 14

ok no worries thanks for coming here though :)

Answer 15

can i have a medal?

Answer 16

my medals are more toward deserving ones, so one has to earn it ;)

Answer 17

ok fine

Answer 18

im sorry i couldnt help u

Answer 19

its okay :)

Answer 20

people wanted a way to say "to the nearest hundred" without writing it all out, so they decided that if you write 100 that means "to the nearest 100"
to say that it is to the nearest 1, they would write 100. with a decimal point

it is just a rule

Answer 21

ok i think im beginning to understand right side 0s... .

2000
has 1 sig fig

Answer 22

2000.
has 4 sig figs

Answer 23

2000 has 1 sig fig
2000. has 4
yes

Answer 24

imagine looking a field of about a hundred sheep,

this exactly the same as a field of about 99, 101, 116,

but a field of about two hundred sheep would not looks exactly the same as a field of about one hundred

Answer 25

\[1\times 10^2\]

Answer 26

similar example ive also thought about, but that doesnt relate why 101 has 3 sig figs, and 99 has only 2

Answer 27

@phi i have one more question on left side zeroes, 1 sec plz

Answer 28

both are to the nearest 1, but
significance counts the number of digits. 101 has 3 digits
99 has 2 digits

Answer 29

yeah that example is not related to sig figs, becoz for 100 it doesnt justify, why sig figs is 1

Answer 30

but urs i understood, to the nearest 100 if we see, only 1 sig-fig

Answer 31

to the nearest 2000, if we see 2000 has only 2 sig-figs

to the nearest 1, if we see '2000.' has 4 sig-figs

Answer 32

to the nearest 100th, if we see '200.00' has 5 sig-figs

Answer 33

hope i get u correctly

Answer 34

to the nearest 2000, if we see 2000 has only 2 sig-figs
this is to the nearest 1000. It has 1 sig figure (the 2)
the others are correct

Answer 35

ohh yes, ty... one more q can i ask about left side zeroes

Answer 36

of course you can ask

Answer 37

0.23 has 2 sig-figs

Answer 38

0.005 has 1 sig-fig

Answer 39

hw to understand these two

Answer 40

0.23 has 2 sig-figs True

leading zeros are ignored. just a rule. But if you remember that
00001 is just 1 (we ignore the leading zeros), you can remember that
0000.1 is just .1 with only 1 sig fig
same rule for
0.005 has 1 sig-fig

Answer 41

0.00501 has 3 sig figures 501

Answer 42

yeah

Answer 43

0.001

why we say sig figs are 1, when we knw that the precision is 1000, and we can measure anything between .001 and 1 ?

Answer 44

i mean, if we have an instrument using which we can measure .001 m, then we can measure any number of milli meters using that instrument.

Answer 45

im sorry if im getting mixed up in different things..

Answer 46

the other example u said, 100 - has 1 sig fig becoz it indicates we counting in 100s....

0.001 we can count with precision any number between 1 and .001

Answer 47

we can measure anything between .001 and 1 ?
yes, but when you write down the measurement it will be in mm
1 mm, 2.1 mm and so on
when you write it out in meters 0.001 or 0.0021
you only still have 1 or 2 sig figures

It is true if you measure 111 mm, and write it as 0.111 meters you have 3 sig figures.

Answer 48

i get it !

Answer 49

thank you both :) phi & Unkle xD

Answer 50

practice makes perfect with this (as with most things)

Answer 51

yeah i just started with Accuracy and Precision module, but i understand about sig-figs completely nw, u guys explain very well thanks again xD