When making measurements, you may have measurement tools that allow

you only a certain degree of precision. For example, you may be able to
measure your friends height to the nearest millimeter, but estimating it any
closer is difficult. You may say his height is 1536 mm or, in other words,
1.536 m. Since we dont know what comes after the 6, we say that this
number
contains 4 significant figures. Each one can be accurately measured. When
adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing numbers, it is important to
keep significant figures in mind. The invention of the calculator has made this
task difficult, because the calculator customarily carries out our calculations
to
8 figures or more, many of which are probably not significant. The rules for
the correct use of significant figures can be found in Appendix A. You will
find that all of the solved examples in this book and the selected answers in
the back adhere to these rules on significant figures and you should too,