What are the rules in writing significant figures?

Answer 1

The rules in writing significant figures state that non zero numbers always significant. Zero numbers between the non zero numbers are also significant. Finally, if you write a number in scientific notation and you are able to get rid of the zeroes, they are not significant.

Answer 2

In general, the rules for significant figures are:

1. Non-zero digits are always significant.
2. Zeros between non-zero digits are significant.
3. Leading zeros (zeros to the left of the first non-zero digit) are not significant.
4. Trailing zeros in a number with a decimal point are significant; without a decimal point, they may or may not be significant.

Answer 3

The rules for identifying significant figures when writing or interpreting numbers are as follows:

1. All non-zero digits are considered significant. For example, 91 has two significant figures (9 and 1), while 123.45 has five significant figures (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5).

2. Zeros appearing anywhere between two non-zero digits are significant. Example: 101.1203 has seven significant figures: 1, 0, 1, 1, 2, 0 and 3.

3. Leading zeros are not significant. For example, 0.00052 has two significant figures: 5 and 2.

4. Trailing zeros in a number containing a decimal point are significant. For example, 12.2300 has six significant figures: 1, 2, 2, 3, 0 and 0. The number 0.000122300 still has only six significant figures (the zeros before the 1 are not significant). In addition, 120.00 has five significant figures since it has three trailing zeros.

Answer 4

In general all the non-zero numbers are significant, and including zeroes within the number.

When multiplying, you should finish with as many decimals as you started with. 2.5x2.5 = 6.25.

When dividing, similarly, 3.7/2.7 = 1.370370., but you would truncate it at 1.37.

Leading and trailing zeros are unimportant as significant figures.

have a crack at significant figures in a math text, or wikipedia.