125,737 views
21 votes
21 votes
how many significant figures are in each measured quantity? (a) 13001 kg(b) 13111 kg (c) 1. 30 x 10^4 kg(d) 0.00013 kg

User Mohammad Athar
by
2.3k points

1 Answer

20 votes
20 votes

To count significant figures we have to remember the following rules:

• All non zero digits are always significant.

,

• Interior zeros, that is, zeros between non zero numbers are significant.

,

• Leading zeros, that is, zeros at the beggining of the number are not significant.

,

• Trailing zeros, that is, zeros at the end of the number are significant if and only if there is a decimal point present in the number.

With this rules we have that:

a)

Since in the number 13001 we have interior zeros and these are significant we have 5 significant figures.

b)

Since this number have all non zero numbers it has 5 significant rules.

c)

Since we have a decimal point the trailing zero count, hence we have 3 significant figures.

d)

In this case we have leading zeros this are not significant, therefore we have 2 significant figures.

User Sapenov
by
3.1k points