High School Chemistry : Scientific Notation and Significant Figures

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for High School Chemistry

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Example Questions

Example Question #7 : Using Significant Figures

How many significant figures are in the given number?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Let's look at the rules of significant figures:

I. All nonzero digits are significant.

II. Any zero found anywhere between nonzero digits is significant.

III. Any zero to the right of the decimal point AND after a nonzero digit is significant.

IV. Any zero to the left of the decimal point AND after a nonzero digit is significant. Any zero found after a nonzero digit with no decimal point indication is NOT significant.

Rule I gives us only one nonzero significant figure. However, rule IV tells us that the zeroes are significant because there is a decimal present and the zeroes are following a nonzero digit. Therefore,  has four significant figures. 

Example Question #8 : Using Significant Figures

Solve the expression using the correct number of significant figures.

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

When adding or subtracting, the final answer will have the same number of decimal places as the term with the fewest decimal places in the calculation. Always complete the calculation without rounding first to avoid errors.

 has one decimal place.

 has two decimal places.

Our final answer will have one decimal place.

Solve the expression and round:

Rounding to one decimal place gives us .

Example Question #9 : Using Significant Figures

Solve the expression using the correct number of significant figures.

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

When multiplying or dividing, the final answer will have the same number of significant figures as the term with the fewest significant figures in the calculation. Always complete the calculation without rounding first to avoid errors.

 has three significant figures.

 has four significant figures.

Our final answer will have three significant figures.

Solve the expression and round:

Rounding to three significant figures gives us .

Example Question #10 : Using Significant Figures

Solve the expression using the correct number of significant figures.

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

When adding or subtracting, the final answer will have the same number of decimal places as the term with the fewest decimal places in the calculation. Always complete the calculation without rounding first to avoid errors.

 has three decimal places.

 has two decimal places.

Our final answer will have two decimal places.

Solve the expression and round:

Rounding to two decimal places gives us .

Example Question #51 : Measurements

Solve the expression using the correct number of significant figures.

 

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

When multiplying or dividing, the final answer will have the same number of significant figures as the term with the fewest significant figures in the calculation. Always complete the calculation without rounding first to avoid errors.

 has eight significant figures.

 has six significant figures.

Our final answer will have six significant figures.

Solve the expression and round:

Rounding to six significant figures gives us .

Example Question #21 : Scientific Notation And Significant Figures

Silver costs $37.05 per gram. A jeweller wants to buy four samples weighing 3.587g, 10.01g, 0.03g, and 7.1g. What is the total cost?

Report the answer using the correct number of significant figures.

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

This question requires that we first add, then multiply.

When adding or subtracting, the final answer will have the same number of decimal places as the term with the fewest decimal places in the calculation. Always complete the calculation without rounding first to avoid errors.

7.1g has only one decimal place, so we round our answer to 20.7g.

Next, multiply the mass by the cost per gram. When multiplying or dividing, the final answer will have the same number of significant figures as the term with the fewest significant figures in the calculation. Always complete the calculation without rounding first to avoid errors.

20.7g has only three significant figures, so we round our answer to $767.00. Note that the zeroes after the decimal are insignificant.

Example Question #13 : Using Significant Figures

The mass of five objects are , , , and . What is the total mass of all four objects?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

When performing addition or subtraction in chemistry you can only be as precise as the number with the fewest number of decimal not significant figures. Because  only has 1 decimal place the answer of the addition problem can only have 1 decimal place. All of the other numbers have more than 1 decimal place so that is why the other answers are incorrect.

Example Question #51 : High School Chemistry

Perform the calculation above to the correct number of significant figures.

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

When performing multiplication and division in chemistry, the answer to the question can only have as many significant figures as the number with the fewest number of significant figures.

 has 4 significant figures

 has 2 significant figures

 has 3 significant figures

 has 3 significant figures

Thus the answer must have 2 significant figures because  only has 2 significant figures.

disregarding significant figures. However to round to 2 significant figures, the answer becomes 

Example Question #21 : Scientific Notation And Significant Figures

Round the above measurement to three significant figures.

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

To round a number to 3 significant figures count to the 3rd significant figure and apply the rules of rounding to the next number. If the next number is 5 or higher round up, if it is 4 or below round down.

The 3rd significant figure is the 7. The next number is an 8 so the 7 is rounded up to an 8. As there are 4 places before the decimal point this answer must have 4 places

 rounds to  with three significant figures.

The other answers are wrong because:

 has 4 significant figures due to the decimal point

 rounds in the wrong direction

 only has 2 significant figures

 does not have the same amount of places before the decimal point

Example Question #51 : High School Chemistry

How many significant figures are in ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

 follows the rules of significant figures.

1. Any digit 1-9 is always significant (So the 8 and the 3 are significant)

2. Any zero sandwiched between two digits 1-9 is always significant (No 0 in this case is significant because of this rule)

3. If the number is larger than 1 and there is no decimal point,  a zero at the end is NOT significant (trailing zero rule, no zeros are a part of this rule)

4. If the number is less than 1 any 0 before the first nonzero digit is not significant (leading zero rule)

In the number 0.000830 the bolded zeros are not significant because they are leading zeros

5. If a number has a decimal point, any zero that follows a non-zero digit is significant. 

0.00083is the number. The last 0 follows a 3 and this number has a decimal point so it is significant. Totaling the significant figures, we have 3 sig figs.

0.000830  3 Significant Figures.

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