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	Spartanburg SC \| GoUpstate.com \| Spartanburg Herald-Journal
		Rounding to n significant figures is a form of rounding.
		Reporting the result using three significant figures (8.54 m/s) might be interpreted as implying that the speed is somewhere between 8.535 and 8.544 m/s.
		As mentioned at the top of this article, "significant figures" primarily refers to a type of rounding, and is arguably appropriate when roundoff of the final answer is the dominant contribution to the uncertainty.
	www.goupstate.com /apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=NEWS&template=wiki&text=significant_figures (1345 words)

	Dr. Bodwin's Significant Figure Primer
		Significant figures are extremely important when performing any sort of calculation that involves a measured quantity.
		Similarly for small numbers, "0.0023" has 2 sig figs (the leading zeros are not significant), "0.0023000" has 5 (the leading zeros are still not significant, but the zeros to the right of "23" wouldn't be there if they weren't sig figs).
		This is why the number of significant figures is not limited to 1 when we consider the stoichiometry of reactants in a chemical equation.
	www.mnstate.edu /bodwin/sigfigs.htm (924 words)

	Significant Figures
		The number of significant figures in a measurement, such as 2.531, is equal to the number of digits that are known with some degree of confidence (2, 5, and 3) plus the last digit (1), which is an estimate or approximation.
		Rules for counting significant figures are summarized below.
		There are four significant figures in both the mass of the penny (2.531) and the number of grams in a pound (453.6).
	chemed.chem.purdue.edu /genchem/topicreview/bp/ch1/sigfigs.html (547 words)

	Lesson Exchange: Significant Figures Handout (Senior, Science)
		A "significant figure" is one which is known to be fairly reliable.
		When multiplying and dividing numbers with respect to significant figures, you look at the total number of digits that are present in each figure being multiplied or divided.
		In this case, according to the significant figure rules for zeros, in the 100 there is only 1 significant figure.
	www.teachers.net /lessons/posts/576.html (557 words)

	SCIMEDIA: Significant Figures
		The answer must be truncated to the same least significant decimal place as the number with the least significant figure from the right.
		The answer has the same number of significant figures as the factor with the smallest number of significant figures.
		It is common to carry one additional significant figure through extended calculations and to round off the final answer at the end.
	www.uam.es /docencia/quimcursos/Scimedia/chem-ed/data/sig-figs.htm (141 words)

	Significant Figure Rule
		This is based on the A significant figure is one that has some significance but does not necessarily denote a certainty As a general rule you should attempt to read any scale to one tenth of its smallest ChemTeam: Significant Figure Rules
		Add the sample to 400 mL plain dealer obituary of water," assume the volume of water is known to one significant figure.
		However, not all of ada county arrest these digits are important or significant to the result.
	musterhaft.com /_themes/db/significant-figure-rule (496 words)

	Significant Figure Rules
		The significant digits are all the digits you measured + the one you estimated.
		That's because the last significant digit is the 5 (in the tens place), and everything after that is not even estimated.
		Here's another way to think of significant digits: when you write a number in scientific notation, all the zeroes that are un-necessary for precision disappear, and the remaining digits are significant.
	www.dbooth.net /mhs/common/sigfigs.html (746 words)

	[No title]
		Significant figures in a measurement expression comprise all digits that are known with certainty, plus the first digit that is uncertain.
		Multiplication and division- The rightmost significant figure in a measurement is uncertain.
		Significant figures are not considered for factors arrived at by definition, as in the case of conversion factors.
	www.kmhsmagnet.com /files/Figures.doc (523 words)

	Significant Figure Encyclopedia Article @ NaturalResearch.org (Natural Research) (Site not responding. Last check: )
		The concept of significant figures presumably originated from some confusion between roundoff and uncertainty; sometimes roundoff error is the dominant contribution to the uncertainty, and sometimes not.
		In contrast, in the research laboratory and in real-world situations, notions of significant figures are rarely applied at all; it is expected that guard digits will be used, and that the uncertainty will be expressed separately and explicitly.
		As illustrated in the above example involving the length measurement in millimeters, the significant figures method is that, when measuring using a non-electronic instrument, the observer should estimate within the nearest tenth of a division marked on the instrument.
	www.naturalresearch.org /encyclopedia/Significant_figure (1836 words)

	Learn more about Significant figures in the online encyclopedia. (Site not responding. Last check: )
		Significant Figures is a method of determining propogation of error in a scientific experiment that is often taught in high school science classes.
		The significant figures method teaches that when measuring using a non-electronic instrument, the observer should estimate within the nearest tenth of a division marked on the insturment.
		In order to correctly show which digits are significant, figures such as "2000" should be expressed in scientific notation to the correct number of significant figures.
	www.onlineencyclopedia.org /s/si/significant_figures.html (632 words)

	Significant Digits -- from Wolfram MathWorld
		When a number is expressed in scientific notation, the number of significant digits (or significant figures) is the number of digits needed to express the number to within the uncertainty of calculation.
		The number of significant figures of a multiplication or division of two or more quantities is equal to the smallest number of significant figures for the quantities involved.
		subtraction, the number of significant figures is determined with the smallest significant figure of all the quantities involved.
	mathworld.wolfram.com /SignificantDigits.html (155 words)

	Significant figure - Questionz.net , answers to all your questions (Site not responding. Last check: )
		Note that because of the rounding, a number to n significant figures is not necessarily the same as the first n digits of that number (as in 4,220 above).
		When multiplying a number having n significant figures with a number having m significant figures, and m ≤ n, then the result will have m-1 significant figures.
		When adding, it is not the number but the position of the significant figures that determines the significant figures of the result: if the first summand has significant digits which are to the right of the significant digits of the second summand, then these digits are insignificant in the result.
	www.questionz.net /Chemistry/Significant_figure.html (617 words)

	Significant figure : Significant digit
		Rounded to two significant figures, we have 4,200; to three significant figures, it is 4,220; to 5 significant figures we have 4,215.0 and to 7 significant digits we get 4,215.025.
		When adding, it isn't the number but the position of the significant figures that determines the significant figures of the result: if the first summand has significant digits which are to the right of the significant digits of the second summand, then these digits are insignificant in the result.
		For example, adding 2103.45 (6 significant digits) to 3.453245 (7 significant digits) on a calculator results in 2106.903245, but this should be stated with 6 significant digits as 2106.90.
	www.findword.org /si/significant-digit.html (615 words)

	Significant Figures (Site not responding. Last check: )
		Significant figures are the easiest way to deal with uncertainty in measurements, but it is not a perfect system.
		While significant figures are by no means as precise as detailed calculations of the uncertainty of a value, they are a very useful way to estimate uncertainty quickly.
		When we express a number with three significant figures, what we are saying is that the first two digits are essentially exactly correct, and the last one is uncertain by a small amount (generally it is only uncertain by about ± 1).
	homepage.mac.com /dtrapp/SignificantFigures.html (2795 words)

	Notes on Significant Digits (Site not responding. Last check: )
		Significant digits are an approximate means of expressing the accuracy which you know an approximate measured quantity.
		Likewise, if you report a figure like 7.36, that means you are absolutely sure of the 7 and the 3, and are reasonably sure of the 6, so that overall, you know the measurement to one part in several hundreds, and the last significant digit is in the hundredths place.
		So the answer, rounded to 4 significant figures, is -0.2148.As with the above, your textbook is wrong to report 5 significant figures, because of the loss of significance in taking the difference of two numbers of similar magnitude.
	tomyee3.home.comcast.net /Math_Lessons/essays/notes_on_significant_digits.htm (833 words)

	Significant Figures & Rounding
		Whether a digit is determined to be significant or not is determined by the capability of the measuring device.
		If a number resulting from a measurement is used in a calculation that involves multiplication or division all significant figures should be carried through the calculation and then the result should be rounded at the end of the calculation to reflect the term used in the calculation with the fewest significant figures.
		As far as I can tell rounding of significant figures carries a certain degree of controversy and people will argue with you based on what they were taught at some point in their education.
	www.ionsource.com /Card/number/number.htm (1294 words)

	[No title] (Site not responding. Last check: )
		The centimeter rule measurement is thus good to three significant figures, whereas the micrometer measurement gave five significant figures, the micrometer being a much more precise length‑measuring instrument than the centimeter rule.
		The 3 in the centimeter rule measurement and the 7 in the micrometer measurement are less significant than the other figures but are still considered significant because they give some real information about the desired length even though there is some doubt about their actual values.
		The calculations then often produce a great many figures that look as if they were significant but really are not, for clearly no mathematical manipulation can give a result whose precision is greater than that of the quantities put into it.
	www.yhc.edu /external/hramm/214Lab0.Measurement.F02.htm (6573 words)

	SBU Chemistry Significant Figures
		For experimentally determined quantities, the number of significant figures is not simply related to the intrinsic precision of a device.
		The number of significant figures in a computed quantity may be the same or different from those of the quantities from which it is computed.
		In general, the number of significant figures in a multiplication or division of quantities will be that of the quantity with the least number of significant figures.
	www.ic.sunysb.edu /Class/che133/lectures/sigfigs.html (1611 words)

	Duran: Chapter One Significant Figures (Site not responding. Last check: )
		The left hand thermometer is accurate to three significant figures while the right hand on is only accurate to two significant figures.
		For quantities determined by subtraction or addition, one considers only the number of figures past the decimal (smaller than one) as the least significant of the terms.
		Results obtained from a calculation are converted to the correct number of significant figures by rounding the first non-significant figure up or down (if it is equal to or greater than 5, or less than 5 respectively) and setting all less significant digits to zero.
	www.chem.ufl.edu /~chm2040/Notes/Chapter_1/figures.html (221 words)

	Significant Figures
		All measured quantities are limited in significant figures (SF) by the precision of the instrument used to make the measurement.
		Calculations where measured quantities are added or subtracted shall correspond to the position of the last significant figure in any of the measured quantities.
		A number is rounded off to the desired number of significant figures by dropping one or more digits to the right.
	www.phys.unt.edu /PIC/significant_figures.htm (629 words)

	CHP - Significant Figures (Site not responding. Last check: )
		The answer must be truncated to the same least significant decimal place as the number with the least significant figure from the right.
		The answer has the same number of significant figures as the factor with the smallest number of significant figures.
		It is common to carry one additional significant figure through extended calculations and to round off the final answer at the end.
	www.chem.vt.edu /chem-ed/data/sig-figs.html (141 words)

	Sig Figs
		Significant figures are those digits in a measured number (or result of a calculation with measured numbers) believed to be correct by the person making the measurement.
		The correct use of significant figures is an attempt to indicate the precision of a measured number.
		A full explanation of the procedure to determine the number of significant figures in a calculation involves a mathematical treatment of data known as error analysis.
	faculty.philau.edu /ashleyj/new_page_6.htm (1358 words)

	Significant Figures
		Significant figures are the digits in a value that are known with some degree of confidence.
		When calculating the logarithm of a number, retain in the mantissa (the number to the right of the decimal point in the logarithm) the same number of significant figures as there are in the number whose logarithm is being found.
		With this approach, if the value of the digit(s) to the right of the last significant figure is smaller than 5, drop this digit and leave the remaining number unchanged.
	www.ndt-ed.org /GeneralResources/SigFigs/SigFigs.htm (966 words)

	[No title]
		We refer to the number of significant figures a number has: this means the number of digits it is written with in scientific notation.
		In writing a number with a certain amount of significant figures, we are making a statement about the precision with which we know the number.
		Note that if I had told you that the distance to the nearest star was 4.00 light years, I would be giving you three significant figures, and you should give the resulting distance in kilometers to three significant figures.
	www.astro.princeton.edu /~strauss/AST203/mathtips (1116 words)

	[No title]
		Zeroes are significant if bounded by non-zero digits; e.g., the measurement 4003 m has four significant figures.
		Note that the number of figures in the quotient is the same as the least number of significant digits in either the divisor or the dividend.
		When multiplying or dividing, the number of significant figures retained may not exceed the least number of digits in either the of the factors.
	www.fiu.edu /~kramerl/Teaching/2049S06/Notes/U1Reading-sigfigs.doc (783 words)

	Significant Figures and Standard Deviations
		The standard deviation should be expressed to ONE significant figure (unless the number is between 11 and 19 (times some power of ten, in which case you can use two significant figures.
		The number modified by the significant figure should be expressed to AGREE IN PLACE with the standard deviation.
		If your calculated standard deviation is LESS THAN 1 in the last significant figure as determined by using the rules on page A15-17 of the text by Zumdahl, ROUND-UP to 1.
	www.facstaff.bucknell.edu /kastner/CHEM221/announcements/sigfig.html (422 words)

	Significant Figures (Site not responding. Last check: )
		The significant figures in a measured quantity include all the digits that we know for sure, plus one that is uncertain (estimated).
		There is no way it could have 4 significant figures, since nothing is reported beyond the decimal point -- which is assumed to be at the right end of the number, since no decimal point is shown.
		Significant figures are designed to give us an idea of the amount of uncertainty in a quantity, but not all quantities have uncertainty -- some are known exactly (zero uncertainty).
	www.accd.edu /pac/chemistr/lectures/sigfig.htm (4610 words)

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