Question

What is a significant figure? Remember that significant figures refer to experimental measurements.

Answer 1

The significant figures of a number are digits that contribute to the value of measurement.

Significant figure includes all digits in any measured value except:

   

Rules of significant figures-

1)   Non-zero digits are significant in all numbers decimals or integers.

   2)All Zeros appearing between any non-zero digits are significant. 0.102 zero is significant.

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

   4) Trailing zeros in a decimal number are significant. 2.2300 has five significant figures. 2, 2, 3, 0 and 0

This gives the rule for precision of numbers. For a measurement precise to three decimal places (0.001) if given as 11.23 then it must be written as 11.230.