Question

The speed of light in vacuum is approximately 300,000,000 kilometers per second, which is rounded from 299,792,458 kilometers per second. What is the maximum number of trailing zeros that can possibly significant?

Answer 1

Explanation:

Significant figures are called the set of digits that are known with certainty in a measure. For numbers without a decimal point, zeros after the last nonzero figure may or may not be considered significant. For example 450 has 2 significant figures (the number 45), however 450. has 3 significant figures as it is indicated with a point that the last zero has value. But before making the determination, you need extra information. In this case, this information is given by saying that the value 300,000,000 is a rounded speed number 299,792,458 kilometers per second

So, this tells you that all zeros are significant, then there are 8 trailing zeros significant. Then this number can be written in scientific notation as follows, remembering that this notation simply consists in multiplying by a base power 10 with positive or negative exponent:

3.0*
`10^(8)` kilometers per second

3.0 indicates that all zeros located after 3 are significant and
`10^(8)` indicates that after 3, 8 zeros are located.

Answer 2

8

Explanation:

Trailing zeros, defined as the right most zeros are significant when there is a decimal point in the number.For example 400. has three significant figures

The speed of light in vacuum is 300,000,000 km/s. This can be written as;

3.0×10⁸ km/s

Here we have 8 trailing zeros that are significant.