October 26 Marcus Lu

Significant Digits


Significant Digits are digits that contribute to a numbers precision

How to Identify Significant Digits


Ex1)  2.56 has 3 significant digits.  The last number is uncertain because it could be rounded up or down.  Certain digits are the numbers are to the left of the last digit.  Certain digits and the first uncertain digit are always significant

Ex2)  0.01 has only 1 significant digit because leading zeros are not counted


Ex3)  10.050 has 5 significant digits because all trailing zeros are significant

Ex4) 125000 only has 3 sig figures because trailing zeros without a decimal are not counted