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Help with significant figures and scientific notation?
i don't really get this stuff.
indicate how many significant figures are in each of the following numbers and write and them in scientific notation.
1. 0.0032
2. 2300.
3. 320.02
4. 300.0
5. 400003
6. 4200
7. .0025602
8. 3.02
9. .001
10. .002000
thank you.
1 Answer
- lhvinnyLv 71 decade agoFavorite Answer
All non-zero digits are significant.
All leading zeroes (ones before a non-zero digit) are insignificant.
Trailing zeroes are significant if they are between two non-zero digits or after the decimal point.
In order to write a number in scientific notation, move the decimal point until you get a number between 1 and 10. The exponent on 10 is the number of places you moved the decimal point. Moving the decimal point to the right makes it a negative exponent, moving it to the left makes it a positive exponent.
Example:
0.0032 has 2 significant figures since all 3 zeroes are leading.
0.0032 in scientific notation is 3.2 x 10^-3
It's -3 as the power because I moved the decimal to the right 3 spaces.