Question

80.00 kgDetermine the number of significant digits in the measurement.

Answer 1

Close, but not entirely true.

In 905 for example, the 0 is still significant.

There is also a different between 80 and 80.

In the first one (80) there is only one significant figure, since the 0 only lets us know that the 8 needs to be in the 10s place.

But in the second one (80.) we're told that not only is the 8 is in the 10s place, but that 0 is in the 1s place, so there are two significant figures.

So 0s can be significant if they're not there to simply show where the first non-zero number goes.

So in 80.00 how many of the 0s are there just to make sure that we know in what place the 8 goes?