This is a dumb question but it came to my mind and I got shocked .
If $67.010$ have 4 significant figures because I count the 3rd decimal place into it , then how many significant figures has $3000.00$ has ? Am I right to say 6 ?
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Yes.${}{}{}{}{}$ – Parcly Taxel Oct 24 '17 at 09:31
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@user307640 The extra zeroes are to indicate precision. If you had something like $5000.00$, then the margin of error would be from $4999.995$ to $5000.005$, but if it was $5000$, then it would be from $4999.5$ to $5000.5$. – Toby Mak Oct 24 '17 at 09:32
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2No, $67.010$ has five significant figures. – Oct 24 '17 at 09:47
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Ahh! I should really delete mine, since it's pointless having two identical comments. Well played good sir :P – Sam OT Oct 24 '17 at 09:48
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@SamT: no problem, you are my guest. – Oct 24 '17 at 09:49
1 Answers
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Trailing zeroes in the fractional part are indeed used to indicate that they are significant. And the most significant position is obviously the leftmost.
As far as I know, we have no equivalent notation when the least significant digit is in the integer part. In such a case, we have to switch to scientific notation, like
$$300,000=3.000\cdot10^5$$ for four significant digits.