Question

What do you mean by significant figures

Answer 1

Define significant figures:

Those digits in a number that are meaningful in terms of precision and accuracy are known as significant figures.

The larger the number of significant figures obtained in a measurement, the greater is the accuracy of the measurement and vice-versa.

Rules for Significant Figures

• All non-zero digits are significant. $198745$ contains six significant digits.
• All zeros that occur between any two non-zero digits are significant. For example, $108.0097$ contains seven significant digits.
• All zeros that are on the right of a decimal point and also to the left of a non-zero digit are never significant. For example, $0.00798$ contained three significant digits.
• All zeros that are on the right of a decimal point are significant, only if, a non-zero digit does not follow them. For example, $20.00$ contains four significant digits.
• All the zeros that are on the right of the last non-zero digit, after the decimal point, are significant. For example, $0.0079800$ contains five significant digits.
• All the zeros that are on the right of the last non-zero digit are significant if they come from a measurement. For example, $1090$contains four significant digits.