Significant Figures

[Probability]

Just a second opinion please if anyone doesn't mind.

It's probably silly to ask but just can't find an example in a maths book to find what I am looking for.

I have a number;

0.00001181

I want to write this number to 4 sig figs, so my usual approach would be to round down the last number, so in this example 1, thus leaving a 0, but as 0 is not significant does 0.00001180 say that this is correctly rounded to 4 sig figs, or should it be left as shown above which is what the calculator shows?

Thanks

 

[tkhunny]

You are confusing Significant Figures with Decimal Places.

You can unconfuse yourself by writing it in Scientific Notation: 0.00001181 = 1.181E(-5) - And there's your four significant figures.

 

[Probability]

You are confusing Significant Figures with Decimal Places.

You can unconfuse yourself by writing it in Scientific Notation: 0.00001181 = 1.181E(-5) - And there's your four significant figures.

Thank you:smile: