SIGNIFICANT FIGURES, RULES OF SIGNIFICANT FIGURES

 SIGNIFICANT FIGURES

                In measurement the accurately known digits  and first doubtful digits are called significant figures.

RULES OF SIGNIFICANT FIGURES:
               

Ø  All non zero digits are significant figures.

e.g.        7686 has four significant figures.

Ø  Zeros lying between the non-zeros are significant.

e.g.        304005 has six significant figures.

Ø  All the zeros which locate the decimal point in a number less than one are not significant.

e.g.        0.0008765 has four significant figures.

Ø  The zeros which are located immediately to the right of the decimal point are significant.

e.g. 38.0000 has six significant figures.

Ø  Zeros lying the decimal point in a number greater than one are not necessarily significant.

e.g.  600 has only significant figure.

When two are more numbers are used in a calculation, the number of significant figures with answers in limited by the number of significant figures in the original data.