Give the answer to the following calculation with the correct number of significant digits. Report your answer in scientific notation.
(6.17 x 10-1 + 4.9 x 10-2) x (3.95 x 10-2 + 6.454 x 10-3)
i know the answer is 0.0306, but how many sigfigs should the final answer have? please help!
opps, I missed something earlier.
In the case of adding numbers, you cannot make rightmost zeroes significant. adding...
.627 + .049 makes a three digit number, since the thousands digit in both numbers is sig.
.0395 + .006454 here is a problem. In this, the first number is sig to the thousandths, so the secnd number can only be added to that significance..
.0395 + .0065= .0460 is a three sig number.
Finally, the answer will be a 3 x 3 multiply, so the answer will be to three sig digits.
Here us a site that may help.
(Broken Link Removed)
To determine the number of significant digits in the final answer, you need to consider the rules for significant figures:
1. Non-zero digits are always significant.
2. Zeros between non-zero digits are significant.
3. Leading zeros (zeros before the first non-zero digit) are not significant.
4. Trailing zeros (zeros at the end of a number and after the decimal point) are significant.
5. Trailing zeros before the decimal point (zeros at the end of a whole number) are not significant.
Let's calculate the expression step by step:
Step 1: (6.17 x 10^-1 + 4.9 x 10^-2) = (0.617 + 0.049) = 0.666
The addition yields 0.666.
Step 2: (3.95 x 10^-2 + 6.454 x 10^-3) = (0.0395 + 0.006454) = 0.045954
The addition yields 0.045954.
Step 3: Multiply the results from Step 1 and Step 2: 0.666 x 0.045954 = 0.030625164
When you round this multiplication result to the correct number of significant digits, the answer is 0.031.
Since the smallest number of significant digits in the given expression is two (4.9 x 10^-2), we should round the final answer to two significant digits.
So, the final answer, 0.031, should be reported in scientific notation as 3.1 x 10^-2.