Question

246.24+238.278+98.3 Calculate to the appropriate number of significant figures

Answer 1

Answer:

The correct answer is 582.8.

Explanation:

To solve this problem, we must remember the rules for significant figures for addition.  Recall that the answer should have the same number of decimal places as the term with the least number of decimal places that we are adding.  In this case, we can see that out of our three terms, 98.3 has the least number of decimal places.  This lets us know that our answer should be rounded to the tenths place.

With this in mind, we can compute the addition.

246.24 + 238.278 + 98.3

= 582.818 (unrounded value)

However, we stated that our answer should be rounded to the tenths place.

Therefore, our answer is 582.8.

Hope this helps!