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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.
