Monday, October 29, 2012

How to Solve Significant Figures


Introduction how to solve significant figures:

The digits, which are used to represent the accuracy of numbers are said to be significant figures. Significant figures can also be called as significant digits. The concepts of significant figures are highly linked with rounding. The term significant figures can be abbreviated as sig figs, sign figs, and sign digs. In this section, we shall discuss how to solve significant figures. In this content we have an overview on identifying and solving significant figures.

Example for How to Solve Significant Figures :

Example problem 1:

How to Identify the number of significant figures from the following.

84, 0.084, 5.8480, 2005, 8400

Solution:

84 – The number 84 is a non-zero number that has two significant figures.

0.084 – Zeroes placed before the other numbers are not significant figures and the number of significant figures in 0.084 is two.

5.8480– Zeroes placed after the other numbers but after a decimal point are significant figures and the number of significant figures in 5.8480 is five.

2005 – The number 2005 has four significant figures because the Zeroes placed between the figures are always significant.

8400:

The number 8400 may have at least two significant figures. It also has three and four significant figures.

That is:

8400 – 8.4 x 103 has two significant figures.

8400 – 8.40 x 103 has three significant figures.

8400 – 8.400 x 103 has four significant figures.

Between, if you have problem on these topics What are Irrational Numbers, please browse expert math related websites for more help on List of Prime Numbers to 100.

One more Example for How to Solve Significant Figures :

Example problem 2:

Solve the following addition 5.76 + 4.62 + 31.21 and find the number of significant figures in the solution.

Solution:

The given numbers are 5.76, 4.62, and 31.21.

The number 5.76 has three significant figures.

The number 4.62 has three significant figures.

The number 31.21 has four significant figures.

Adding the numbers, we get:

5. 7 6

4. 6 2

3 1. 2 1   +

4 0. 5 9

Therefore, the solution is 40.59.

40.59 can be rounded to 40.6

Therefore, the number of significant figures in 40.6 is three.

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