Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
For example, 13 0 0 has three significant figures (and hence indicates that the number is precise to the nearest ten). Less often, using a closely related convention, the last significant figure of a number may be underlined; for example, "1 3 00" has two significant figures. A decimal point may be placed after the number; for example "1300."
A reading of 8,000 m, with trailing zeros and no decimal point, is ambiguous; the trailing zeros may or may not be intended as significant figures. To avoid this ambiguity, the number could be represented in scientific notation: 8.0 × 10 3 m indicates that the first zero is significant (hence a margin of 50 m) while 8.000 × 10 3 m indicates ...
Typically the divisions mark a scale to a precision of two significant figures, and the user estimates the third figure. Some high-end slide rules have magnifier cursors that make the markings easier to see. Such cursors can effectively double the accuracy of readings, permitting a 10-inch slide rule to serve as well as a 20-inch model.
For example, 1300 x 0.5 = 700. There are two significant figures (1 and 3) in the number 1300, and there is one significant figure (5) in the number 0.5. Therefore, the product will have only one significant figure. When 650 is rounded to one significant figure the result is 700. For example, 1300 + 0.5 = 1301.
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 ...
For example, in pharmacy, trailing zeros are omitted from dose values to prevent misreading. However, trailing zeros may be useful for indicating the number of significant figures, for example in a measurement. In such a context, "simplifying" a number by removing trailing zeros would be incorrect.
the first has somehow, in some way, been my best year yet. So, as I often say to participants in the workshop, “If a school teacher from Nebraska can do it, so can you!”
For example, a billion is represented as 13 characters (1,000,000,000) in traditional decimal format, but is only 3 characters (10 9) when expressed in exponential format. A trillion is 17 chars in traditional, but only 4 (10 12) in exponential. Values that vary dramatically can be represented and compared graphically via logarithmic scale.