Significant Figures and Scientific Notation Flashcard

Front

What are significant figures?

Back

Significant figures are the digits in a number that contribute to its precision. This includes 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 number?

Back

Count all non-zero digits, any zeros between them, and trailing zeros in a decimal number. Leading zeros are not counted.

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

Convert 0.00045 to scientific notation.

Back

4.5 × 10⁻⁴

Front

How do you round a number to a specific number of significant figures?

Back

Identify the last significant figure you want to keep, look at the next digit to determine if you round up or down.

Front

What is the significance of trailing zeros in a decimal number?

Back

Trailing zeros in a decimal number are significant because they indicate precision.

Front

Convert 76,438 g to 4 significant figures.

Back

76,440 g

Front

What is the scientific notation for 4.560 × 10² mL?

Back

It is already in scientific notation.

Front

How do you add numbers with different significant figures?

Back

The result should be rounded to the least number of decimal places of any number in the operation.

Front

What is the total mass of rocks 2.31, 0.945, 1.08, 3.2, 1.56 g rounded to 3 significant figures?

Back

9.10 g