Sig Figs
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Sig Figs
I am still a bit confused on significant figures, even after reading the explanation in the course reader. Are we supposed to only round our final answer? Are we not supposed to round at every step of a calculation before the final answer, because the solutions in the solutions manual have the values in every step of a calculation rounded.
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- Joined: Wed Sep 21, 2016 2:57 pm
Re: Sig Figs
The way I learned it was not to round until the final value because otherwise the rounded value at each step can become very different from the actual value?
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- Posts: 26
- Joined: Wed Sep 21, 2016 2:57 pm
Re: Sig Figs
Usually for my calculations I include about 4-5 places after the decimal for each step, then for the final answer round to however many significant figures the problem calls for.
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- Posts: 26
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Re: Sig Figs
I usually try to not round until the final answer, so throughout my calculations, I leave all the numbers in, even if it is long. It may be a bit meticulous, but by doing this, I've never had problems with sig figs on my quizzes and midterm. I think it's usually safe though to leave 4 numbers in after the decimal if you don't want to write everything out.
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