Significant figures

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๐ŸŒŸ Significant Figures – Concept Builder for Class 8 (IIT Foundation)

๐Ÿ“Œ What Are Significant Figures?

Significant figures (or significant digits) are the digits in a number that carry meaningful information about the precision of a measurement.

๐Ÿ” Why Do We Need Significant Figures?

Measurements can never be perfectly exact. Significant figures tell us how accurate a number is.

Example: 5.0 cm (measured with precision) vs 5 cm (a rough estimate).

๐Ÿ“ Rules for Counting Significant Figures

Rule No. Rule Example Sig. Figures
1 All non-zero digits are significant 567 3
2 Zeros between non-zero digits are significant 507 3
3 Leading zeros are not significant 0.005 1
4 Trailing zeros after decimal are significant 2.300 4
5 Trailing zeros without decimal are ambiguous 1500 2 (unless written in scientific notation)

๐Ÿงช More Examples

  • 0.008 → 1 significant figure
  • 3.40 → 3 significant figures
  • 7.00 → 3 significant figures
  • 5.000 → 4 significant figures
  • 3.20 × 105 → 3 significant figures

๐Ÿ”ฌ Scientific Notation Helps!

  • 1.50 × 10³ → 3 significant figures
  • 1.5 × 10³ → 2 significant figures

๐Ÿšซ Common Mistakes to Avoid

  • Don’t count leading zeros (e.g., 0.004 has only 1 sig fig)
  • Exponents in scientific notation don’t affect sig figs
  • Be cautious with trailing zeros in whole numbers (e.g., 400 vs 400.0)

๐Ÿ’ก Pro Tip:

Significant figures reflect how confident you are in your measurement!

๐Ÿ‘‰ Ready to test yourself? Try this interactive quiz on significant figures below!

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