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For example, 13 0 0 has three significant figures (and hence indicates that the number is precise to the nearest ten). Less often, using a closely related convention, the last significant figure of a number may be underlined; for example, "1 3 00" has two significant figures. A decimal point may be placed after the number; for example "1300."
4 decimal places: Approximating a fractional decimal number by one with fewer digits 2.1784: 2.18 2 decimal places Approximating a decimal integer by an integer with more trailing zeros 23217: 23200: 3 significant figures Approximating a large decimal integer using scientific notation: 300999999: 3.01 × 10 8: 3 significant figures
All of the significant digits remain, but the placeholding zeroes are no longer required. Thus 1 230 400 would become 1.2304 × 10 6 if it had five significant digits. If the number were known to six or seven significant figures, it would be shown as 1.230 40 × 10 6 or 1.230 400 × 10 6. Thus, an additional advantage of scientific notation is ...
In decimal notation, a number ending in the digit "5" is also considered more round than one ending in another non-zero digit (but less round than any which ends with "0"). [2] [3] For example, the number 25 tends to be seen as more round than 24. Thus someone might say, upon turning 45, that their age is more round than when they turn 44 or 46.
Although Excel allows display of up to 30 decimal places, its precision for any specific number is no more than 15 significant figures, and calculations may have an accuracy that is even less due to five issues: round off, [a] truncation, and binary storage, accumulation of the deviations of the operands in calculations, and worst: cancellation ...
Rounding only applies to decimal places, significant figures applies to units and above as well. Ukdragon37 12:05, 9 October 2005 (UTC) Merge: There is another article - Significance arithmetic which deals with performing arithmetic with significant figures. This article should be short and sharp - just a paragraph or. two.
However, it is quite likely that it is not safe to round off the intermediate steps in the calculation to the same number of digits. Be aware that roundoff errors can accumulate. If M decimal places are used in the intermediate calculation, we say there are M−N guard digits.
For example, the decimal number 123456789 cannot be exactly represented if only eight decimal digits of precision are available (it would be rounded to one of the two straddling representable values, 12345678 × 10 1 or 12345679 × 10 1), the same applies to non-terminating digits (. 5 to be rounded to either .55555555 or .55555556).