Question

Explain how precise and significant digits are important. Include real life examples to support your answer.

Answer 1

Do you mean precise and significant figures, like in Chemistry? If so, then I'll try to help.

With both precise and significant figures, you know all of them (the numbers) for sure. They are useful in all sorts of fields, but they especially get applied to Chemistry, particularly if you're calculating for the moles of a substance.

Note that precise figures and significant figures aren't one and the same, though. Precise figures pertain more to whole numbers, such as, for example, 30 backpacks hanging on a rack. Significant figures, on the other hand, can go past the decimal point in a problem; the amount of significant figures required depends on the maximum number of figures in the question. You cannot have the amount of significant figures exceed that number.

Example: If the maximum amount of figures in a problem is 4 (let's say the number with the maximum amount was 16.07), then your significant figure will also have a total of 4 numbers present.

I hope that helps! (^_^)