## Sig fig with constants

Cowasjee_Sanaea_3E
Posts: 27
Joined: Fri Jul 22, 2016 3:00 am

### Sig fig with constants

When you are given only constants to work with in a problem, how many sig figs should you use? such as for Rydberg's equation, if all you are given are n=1, and n=3, how many sig figs are you supposed to have in your answer? should you round the constants (such as plank's constant) to a more reasonable number than 6.62608 x 10^-34? or leave it with that many sig figs in the answer?

Junghyuk_Park_1I
Posts: 34
Joined: Wed Sep 21, 2016 2:56 pm

### Re: Sig fig with constants

My TA said to just use as many significant figures as the constant you used. So depending on the value you used (i.e. speed of light=3.0*10^8 m/s as opposed to 2.998*10^8 m/s) in the problem. Thus, if you are using the constant on the equation sheet, he said to use as many significant figures as your constant has because you cannot use the significant figures from quantized numbers. Hope this helps.

Lindsey Lill
Posts: 34
Joined: Wed Sep 21, 2016 2:57 pm

### Re: Sig fig with constants

I think when working with something like n=1, 2, 3, 4... those are like infinite significant figures. They are whole numbers, they do not need a decimal. So I think in that case you would see what the significant figure of the other numbers in the problem are.