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RMIT University Library - Learning Lab

Rules for significant figures

 

Do I need to use all the numbers from my calculator? If there are a lot of digits in a measurement, we can assume that ascientist has measured to a high level of accuracy. However, measuring perfectly is not possible. We should not overstate how accurate we have been in making a measurement. Significant figures helps us understand how certain we are about a result.
Read this worksheet to learn how to interpret the accuracy of a calculated measurement.

Rules for significant figures (PDF)