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O Level Gulshan Campus
IX Physics
Significant figures
In Physics, Significant figures are the digits of a number that have meaning for the measurement’s
resolution. It is the number of digits used to express a quantity that has been measured or calculated.
Significant figures must be used when dealing with quantitative data
Significant figures are the digits in a number that are reliable and absolutely necessary to
indicate the quantity of that number
There are some important rules to remember for significant figures
o All non-zero digits are significant
o Zeros between non-zero digits are significant
4107 (4.s.f.)
29.009 (5.s.f)
o Zeros that come before all non-zero digits are not significant
0.00079 (2.s.f.)
0.48 (2.s.f.)
o Zeros after non-zero digits within a number without decimals are not significant
57,000 (2.s.f)
640 (2.s.f)
o Zeros after non-zero digits within a number with decimals are significant
689.0023 (7.s.f)
When rounding to a certain number of significant figures:
o Identify the significant figures within the number using the rules above
o Count from the first significant figure to the specified number
o Use the next number as the ‘rounder decider’
o If the decider is 5 or greater, increase the previous value by 1
Examples:Significant Figures examples are as follows:
4308 – 4 significant figures
40.05 – 4 significant figures
470,000 – 2 significant figures
4.00 – 3 significant figures
0.00500 – 3 significant figures
Practice Questions:
Q:1 Give the number of significant figures in each measurement.
1. 36.7 m
2. 0.006606 s
3. 2,002 kg
4. 306,490,000 people
Q:2 Exercises of rounding to the correct number of significant figures with a 5 as the first non-significant
figure:
1. Round 4.7475 to 4 significant figures
2. Round 4.7465 to 4 significant figures
Q:3 How many significant figures are in the measurement 0.0082 L?
Answer 1:
1. This measurement has three significant numbers since all nonzero digits are significant.
2. The first three zeros are insignificant, but the zero between the sixes is, hence this number has
four significant figures.
3. This measurement includes four significant figures because the two zeros between the two are
significant.
4. The four trailing zeros in the number aren’t significant, but the other five are, making this a five-
figure number.
Answer 2:
1. Because the first non-significant digit is 5, and we round the last significant figure up to 6 to
make it even, 4.7475 becomes 4.748.
2. Because the first non-significant figure is 5, and the last significant figure is even, 4.7465
becomes 4.746.
Answer 3: There are five digits in the number provided in the question: three zero digits and two nonzero
digits. Two of the zero digits appear after the decimal, while one appears before the decimal. Regardless,
because there are no nonzero digits between the three zero digits, they are not regarded as significant
figures. As a result, only the first two nonzero numbers are significant. As a result, there are only two
significant figures in this measurement, 82.
