CHEM 1127Q Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Significant Figures, Decimal Mark, Scientific Notation

• School: UConn
• Department: Chemistry
• Course: CHEM 1127Q
• Professor: Clyde Cady, Stephen Barshay

Document Summary

Chem 1127q - lecture 3 - uncertainty and significant figures. Non-zero digits (1, 2, 3, etc. ) are always significant. Ex: in the number 52, there are 2 sig figs, and in 48,456,932, there are 8. Any zeros between non-zero digits are always significant. Ex: in the number 203, there are 3 sig figs, and in 34005, there are 5. Any zeros at the beginning of the number are not significant. Ex: 0. 0021 has 2 sig figs, 002 has 1 (since you can write 2 that way) If there is not a decimal point, any zeros at the end of the number are not significant. Ex: 400 has 1 sig fig, 420 has 2, 30 has 1, and 3,000,000 has 1. If there is a decimal point, all zeros at the end of the number are significant. Since they indicate the degree of accuracy of the measurement. Ex: 500. has 3, 500. 0 has 4, and 500. 00 has 5.