Question

Select all that apply. Which of the following measurements have 3 significant figures? 0.0882 m 0.8820 m 8,820 m 882.0 m

Answer 1

Answer:

0.0882

8,820

Explanation:

0.0882  is one . The significant figures are 882. We ignore the leading zeroes.

0.8820 has 4 significant figures.

8.820 also has 3 significant figures (we do not count the trailing zero).

882.0 has 4 significant figures.

Answer 2

8820 and 0.0882 have three sig figs

When a number has zeros in it I struggled a lot to determine if it what a sig fig or not. This is how I remember it:

If a zero is a sandwich between normal numbers it IS a sig fig

Zero's after the decimal ARE sig figs

***IMPORTANT! There is an exception to this one which I'll talk about next :)

Leading zeros (I believe that is what they are called) are NOT sig figs. This would be like the zeros in the following numbers:

0.2

0.03

0.000000000000000000006

If there are zeros after normal numbers and there is NO DECIMAL it is NOT a sig fig.  This would be like the zeros in the following numbers:

630

3, 000

536, 329,600,000

Take a look at the other numbers:

0.8820 <<<This has 4 sig. figs.

882.0 <<<This has 4 sig. figs.

***Remember that if there is a pure decimal the zero in front of the decimal is NOT a sig fig and just a place holder. It isn't necessary and can always be taken away

Hope this made sense and helped!!!