Question

How many significant figures does 7.2100 x 10-³ g have?

Answer 1

The number
`7.2100 * 10^-3` g has five significant figures, taking into account all non-zero digits and trailing zeros after the decimal point.

Step-by-step explanation:

The number
`7.2100 *10^-3`g has five significant figures. All the non-zero digits are significant, plus the trailing zeros in this case are significant because they come after the decimal point and after a non-zero number. Only leading zeros (which are only placeholders and do not count towards the significant figures) are not considered significant. Therefore, the entire number 7.2100 is significant, while the power of 10 (here, 10-3) simply places the decimal point and does not affect the count of significant figures.