Question

Mary performs this calculation.

(3.0)(2.0)

How many significant figures should her answer have?
one
two
four
six

Answer 1

It's 2

Answer 2

i agree

Answer 3

agree

Answer 4

thanks

Answer 5

anytime

Answer 6

we tend to illustrate an answer with a value of NO MORE ACCURATE THAN ITS WORST PEICE OF DATA . Error analysis is crucial in chemistry.

Here our worst piece of data are both 3.0 and 2.0 therefore we base our answer on how many significant figures one has (the other is redundant since it is has the same significant figure)

so here, we have 2 significant figures, the 2 and the 0 after the decimal place.