The rules for identifying significant figures when writing or interpreting numbers are as follows:
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).
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.
Leading zeros are not significant. For example, 0.00052 has two significant figures: 5 and 2.
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.
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You count the number of figures from left to right starting with the first number different from 0. Example: 205 has 3 significant figures 0.0000205 has 3 significant figures 0.000020500000 has 8 significant figures
If they did not use rules all their calculations would simply lead to random digits!
rules to follow in determining the number of sigificant * zero's are not significant at the end of the whole number which does not have a decimal point * EXAMPLE: 3400 ( 2 sf's) 2000 (2sf's)*
Use the rules of significant figures to answer the following : 22.674 * 15.05. Answer: 341.2