Significant Figures
Significant Figures
Even in this day and age with all of the equipment and technology available to us, whenever someone works with a numerical value that was given, measured, or calculated they can assume that it has some degree of uncertainty. There will always be some degree of uncertainty because as human beings we do not possess the skill to make exact measurements. Take for example if a group of students were performing in a lab and a step in the procedure was to measure a piece of metal. They were told it was 5 centimeters long; however one student may say that its 4.9 centimeters long or 5.1 centimeters long or 5 centimeters long. The point is that none of the students can come up with the totally exact length of the piece of metal. Because of this there will always be uncertainty with any measurements that are taken.
Even though there will always be uncertainty with numerical values we can use significant figures to obtain the most precise result that we can get without losing or gaining incorrect information about the digits in the measurement. Using significant figures allows …show more content…
Well the answer to that question depends on the location of the zero in the numerical value. According to the second rule, zeros that are located in between non-zero digits are always significant. Look at the number 2103. According to the first rule, the numbers 2, 1, and 3 are all considered significant, but in this example so is the number 0 because its located in between non-zero digits. So this numerical value has four significant digits. But values can have more than one zero in it and they can be located in more than one place. Take for example the number 708.20039. According to the first rule the numbers 7, 8, 3, 3, and 9 are all significant; and according to the second rule the zeros are all significant figures because they are located in between non-zero digits. So there are a total of 8 significant figures in this
Even in this day and age with all of the equipment and technology available to us, whenever someone works with a numerical value that was given, measured, or calculated they can assume that it has some degree of uncertainty. There will always be some degree of uncertainty because as human beings we do not possess the skill to make exact measurements. Take for example if a group of students were performing in a lab and a step in the procedure was to measure a piece of metal. They were told it was 5 centimeters long; however one student may say that its 4.9 centimeters long or 5.1 centimeters long or 5 centimeters long. The point is that none of the students can come up with the totally exact length of the piece of metal. Because of this there will always be uncertainty with any measurements that are taken.
Even though there will always be uncertainty with numerical values we can use significant figures to obtain the most precise result that we can get without losing or gaining incorrect information about the digits in the measurement. Using significant figures allows …show more content…
Well the answer to that question depends on the location of the zero in the numerical value. According to the second rule, zeros that are located in between non-zero digits are always significant. Look at the number 2103. According to the first rule, the numbers 2, 1, and 3 are all considered significant, but in this example so is the number 0 because its located in between non-zero digits. So this numerical value has four significant digits. But values can have more than one zero in it and they can be located in more than one place. Take for example the number 708.20039. According to the first rule the numbers 7, 8, 3, 3, and 9 are all significant; and according to the second rule the zeros are all significant figures because they are located in between non-zero digits. So there are a total of 8 significant figures in this