Transcript Significant Figures

Introduction to Significant Figures
Significant Figures
• Significant figures indicate the precision of a
measurement
• Shows the accuracy of the equipment used to take
the measurement
• Allows us to deal with any degree of uncertainty in
a measurement
• The amount of significant figures you use should
not be more than possible with the instrument you
use to take the measurement!
Rules of Significant Figures
• Any number that is not a zero is always
significant!
• If a zero is between 2 other numbers that zero
is significant!
• Zero’s that trail to the right of a decimal point
are significant!
Zeros
• Zeros after a decimal before the first nonzero
digit are NOT significant
• Zeroes that are place holders are NOT
significant
Examples
• Try to figure out how many significant figures
each number has using the rules from the
previous slides!
Number
78,125
2.658
501.36
1,000,000
How many significant figures?
Solution
Number
How many significant figures?
78,125
5 All numbers are significant.
2.65
3 All numbers are significant.
501.36
5 All numbers including the
zero are significant
because it is between two
other non-zero digits.
1,000,000
1 The zeroes are place
holders and are therefore
not significant. Only the
number 1 is significant.