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The rule to calculate significant figures for multiplication and division are not the same as the rule for addition and subtraction. For multiplication and division, only the total number of significant figures in each of the factors in the calculation matters; the digit position of the last significant figure in each factor is irrelevant.
The numbers 200-900 would be confused easily with 22 to 29 if they were used in chemistry. khīlioi = 1000, diskhīlioi = 2000, triskhīlioi = 3000, etc. 13 to 19 are formed by starting with the Greek word for the number of ones, followed by και (the Greek word for 'and'), followed by δέκα (the Greek word for 'ten').
In mathematics, trailing zeros are a sequence of 0 in the decimal representation (or more generally, in any positional representation) of a number, after which no other digits follow. Trailing zeros to the right of a decimal point, as in 12.340, don't affect the value of a number and may be omitted if all that is of interest is its numerical value.
All of the significant digits remain, but the placeholding zeroes are no longer required. Thus 1 230 400 would become 1.2304 × 10 6 if it had five significant digits. If the number were known to six or seven significant figures, it would be shown as 1.230 40 × 10 6 or 1.230 400 × 10 6. Thus, an additional advantage of scientific notation is ...
In 1881, the American inventor Edwin Thacher introduced his cylindrical rule, which had a much longer scale than standard linear rules and thus could calculate to higher precision, about four to five significant digits. However, the Thacher rule was quite expensive, as well as being non-portable, so it was used in far more limited numbers than ...
The significand [1] (also coefficient, [1] sometimes argument, [2] or more ambiguously mantissa, [3] fraction, [4] [5] [nb 1] or characteristic [6] [3]) is the first (left) part of a number in scientific notation or related concepts in floating-point representation, consisting of its significant digits.
Log tables, slide rules and calculators produce approximate answers to all but the simplest calculations. The results of computer calculations are normally an approximation expressed in a limited number of significant digits, although they can be programmed to produce more precise results. [ 3 ]
With decimal arithmetic, final digits of 0 and 5 are avoided; if there is a choice between numbers with the least significant digit 0 or 1, 4 or 5, 5 or 6, 9 or 0, then the digit different from 0 or 5 shall be selected; otherwise, the choice is arbitrary. IBM defines that, in the latter case, a digit with the smaller magnitude shall be selected ...