Question

Joseph divides 8.64 by 2.0. How many significant figures should his answer have?

Answer 1

The answer should have B.) Two significant figures. This is because in a division problem, the number of significant figures in the answer is determined by the least number of significant figures. In this case, 2.0, which has 2 significant figures.

Answer 2

Answer:

Answer should have two significant figure

Explanation:

There are two numbers here- 8.64 and 2.0

8.64 contains nonzero numbers 8,6 and 4. Hence it has 3 significant figures.

2.0 contains 0. But this zero is placed after decimal point. Hence, according to rule of counting significant figure, 2.0 has two significant figures.

Now, according to rule of determining significant figure in case of division, the final result should contain significant figure equal to any number of problem containing least number of significant figure.

Here 2.0 contains least number of significant figures i.e. 2

So answer should have 2 significant figure

$8.64\div 2.0=4.3$