Here are the essential concepts you must grasp in order to answer the question correctly.
Significant Figures
Significant figures are the digits in a number that contribute to its precision. This includes all non-zero digits, any zeros between significant digits, and trailing zeros in the decimal portion. Understanding significant figures is crucial for accurately reporting measurements and ensuring that calculations reflect the precision of the data.
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Scientific Notation
Scientific notation is a way of expressing numbers that are too large or too small to be conveniently written in decimal form. It is represented as a product of a number between 1 and 10 and a power of ten. For example, 2.94×10³ indicates that the number is 2.94 multiplied by 1,000, which helps in identifying significant figures more easily.
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Rules for Counting Significant Figures
There are specific rules for counting significant figures in a number. For example, in scientific notation, all digits in the coefficient (the number before the exponent) are significant. Therefore, in 2.94×10³, the digits 2, 9, and 4 are all significant, leading to a total of three significant figures in this measurement.
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