Here this is two significant digits so three significant digits this is two significant digits, we are able to measure to the nearest tenth.

Because we can have 2 significant digits.

This has 2 significant digits, this has 3.

Let's see if we can learn a thing or two about significant figures, sometimes called significant digits.

So if you saw something like this, you would say 3 significant digits.

So in this situation every digit the way it's written is a significant digit. So you have six significant digits.

Digits

Digits

Group digits

4 Digits

Single digits.

So let's write this over here so, any non zero digits and zero's in between are going to be significant.

A better way to show that you've measured to 3 significant digits would be to write it in scientific notation.

And that let's you know that there was actually five digits of precision that we actually go to five significant figures.

But when you add, when you add, or subtract, now these significant digits or these significant figures don't matter as much as the actual precision of the things that you are adding.

let's see if we can come up with some rules of thumb for figuring out how many significant figures, or how many significant digits, there are in a number or a measurement.

It's either significant or it's not significant.

Number of digits

Number of Digits

We saw in the last video that when you multiply or you divide numbers, or (I guess I should say when you multiply or divide measurements) your result can only have as many significant digits as the thing with the smallest significant digits you ended up multiplying and dividing.

Significant figures

Significant Building

The numbers, the significant figures in your product or your quotient can not be any more than the least number of significant digits, or whatever you are using to come up with that product quotient.

Minimum number of digits

Whether to group digits

Whether to group digits.

Same number of digits

So the first thing that is pretty obvious is that any non zero digit, and any of the zero digits in between are significant.

3 significant figures.

Highly significant relationship.

Significant problems remained.

That's quite significant!

I haven't seen it used much, with these bars below or above the high significant digit, instead you can represent it with a decimal in scientific notation and then it's very clear you have 3 significant digits.

So just as a quick example, if I have 2.00 times (I don't know) 3.5 my answer over here can only have 2 significant digits

But when you write a number in scientific notation, it makes it very clear about your precision and how many significant digits you're dealing with.

In the next couple of videos, we'll explore a little bit more why significant digits are important especially when you do calculations with multiple measurements.

Maximum number of digits displayed

Number of fixed decimal digits

Maximum number of digits displayed.

Number of fixed decimal digits.

Let's add up these digits.

I forget all the digits.

We match all 4 digits.

let's go to four digits.

That's six digits. 6, 1...