How many significant figures in this negative number?

Question

I understand that $0.03$ would have $1$ significant figure.

Does $-0.03$ also have one significant figure or $3$?

Thanks.

The tag shouldn't be (complex-numbers). Maybe something simpler... — coffeemath, Mar 04 '18 at 18:15
@coffeemath: Yes, there's an edit pending so I couldn't commit a tag edit to "number-systems", although "approximation" might be apt. — hardmath, Mar 04 '18 at 18:17

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 04 '18 at 18:15

1

For negative numbers, to find the number of significant figures, you can find the number of significant figures of the absolute value.

answered Mar 04 '18 at 18:15

Andrew Li

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 04 '18 at 18:12

0

$0.03$ and $-0.03$ have the same number of significant digits (or figures), namely one.

answered Mar 04 '18 at 18:12

hardmath

2 Answers2