Lesson 3: Significant Digits

Scientists take the ideas of precision and accuracy very seriously.

You can actually take entire courses in University that show how to figure out the precisi on and
accuracy of measurements.
Guess what? I took 'em!... your opinion of me has proaly slipped a few notches ! "
#e need to know that when another scientist reports a finding to us$ we can trust the accuracy and
precision of all the measurements that have een done.
% set of guidelines is needed while we do calculations so that we get rid of all those
&4.243956528452940472' kind of answers you see on your calculator.
(he guidelines are there so we will know how many digits we should round off the final answer
to show the correct precision.
%ll of this oils down to something called &Significant Digits'$ more commonly referred to as Sig Digs.
(o determine how many significant )important" digits a numer has$ follow these rules*
+. (he numers + to , are always sig digs. -ero )./." is a sig dig if it comes to the right of a numer
etween + and ,.
Example 1:
+0.12, 34 5ive sig digs. %ll the numers are digits etween + and ,.
+.0/6 34 5our sig digs. (he 7ero counts ecause it appears to the right of the .0.
892.// 34 5ive sig digs. (he 7eros count ecause they appear to the right of the .2.
/.///1 34 :ne sig dig. (he 7eros don;t count$ ecause they are to the left of the non37ero digits.
+0 /// 34 5ive sig digs.
<. #hen you a or s!"t#act numers$ always check which of the numers is the least p#ecise
)least numers after the decimal". Use that many decimals in your final answer.
Example 2:
++.2<0 = <./ = /.+6 > ?
If you type this on a calculator$ you'll get +0.920. ?ound it off to a final answer of +0.1$ since the
numer .<./. is the least precise... it only has one sig dig after the decimal.
#e do this ecause we can;t really trust how much rounding off might have een done for any
decimals after this.
+@<1@<//9 A studyphysics.ca Bage + of <
Warning!
Some text books will tell you that this number only has two sig digs, and that the zeros
are ambiguous (a fancy way of saying iffy). Sure, it is unlikely that your answer will
come out to exactly 1!!!, but it could ha""en. #nd if those zeros were not significant we
would ha$e used a different way to write down the number (see the next lesson). %e will
sim"ly follow the rule and say that it has fi$e sig digs since those zeros are all a""earing
to the right of a non&zero digit.
0. #hen you multiply or divide numers$ check which numer has the fewest sig digs. ?ound off
your answer so it has that many sig digs.
Example 3:
6.82 C +0.1,90 > ?
Butting this into a calculator you will get something like 20.09+211. #e round off our final
answer to 20.6 )which has three sig digs"$ ecause .6.82. has the fewest sig digs... three sig digs.
Your Data Sheet...
You'll see that there are a unch of c$nstants on the ack of your data sheet. (hese are all given as three
sig digs$ so treat them appropriately.
You'll also notice that some f$#m!las already have numers on them. (hese numers are considered
perfect and can e considered to have an infinite numer of sig digs.
(here are also situations where you might need to c$n%e#t a numer from one set of units to another. 5or
eCample$ + minute > 2/ seconds. (his doesn't mean that + minute &sort of' eDuals 2/ seconds... it is a
perfect conversion$ so it also has an infinite numer of sig digs.
+@<1@<//9 A studyphysics.ca Bage < of <