Significant Figures and Scientific Notation

Front

What are significant figures?

Back

Significant figures are the digits in a number that contribute to its precision, including all non-zero digits, any zeros between significant digits, and trailing zeros in the decimal portion.

Front

How do you determine the number of significant figures in a measurement?

Back

To determine the number of significant figures, count all non-zero digits, any zeros between significant digits, and trailing zeros in the decimal portion. Leading zeros are not counted.

Front

What is the rule for addition and subtraction regarding significant figures?

Back

In addition and subtraction, the result should be reported to the least number of decimal places of any number in the operation.

Front

What is the rule for multiplication and division regarding significant figures?

Back

In multiplication and division, the result should be reported to the least number of significant figures of any number in the operation.

Front

How do you perform addition with significant figures?

Back

Align the numbers by the decimal point, perform the addition, and round the result to the least number of decimal places.

Front

How do you perform subtraction with significant figures?

Back

Align the numbers by the decimal point, perform the subtraction, and round the result to the least number of decimal places.

Front

How do you perform multiplication with significant figures?

Back

Multiply the numbers as usual, then round the result to the least number of significant figures.

Front

How do you perform division with significant figures?

Back

Divide the numbers as usual, then round the result to the least number of significant figures.

Front

What is scientific notation?

Back

Scientific notation is a way of expressing numbers as a product of a number between 1 and 10 and a power of 10.

Front

How do you convert a number to scientific notation?

Back

To convert to scientific notation, move the decimal point to create a number between 1 and 10, and count the number of places moved to determine the exponent of 10.