CHEMISTRY COMMUNITY

Hello! I have a quick general question on significant figures. If 0.001 has one sig fig, and 1.00 has three sig figs, how many sig figs would 1.001 have? Would you ignore the 0's in between the two 1's and say it has 2 sig figs, or would you take it into consideration and call it 4 sig figs? Thank you so much for your time!

The quick answer is that 1.001 has 4 sig figs :0)

http://chemistry.bd.psu.edu/jircitano/sigfigs.html

http://chemcollective.org/activities/tu ... nt_figures

1.001 has 4 significant figures!

A trick I use to remember which numbers to count as sig figs is the the Atlantic/Pacific analogy. If there's a decimal point present, start from the left (since the Pacific ocean is on the left/west coast of the US) and count starting from the first non-zero number. If a decimal point is absent, start from the right (the Atlantic ocean is on the right/east coast) and count starting from the first non-zero number. Make sure that you count the zeros between any non-zero digits as significant figures!

1.001 would have 4 significant figures. As the last post says, it depends on whether there's a decimal or not. For example, 100 has only 1 significant figure, but 100. has 3.

1.001 would have 4 sig figs because the two zeroes are in between two ones which are significant figures. Zeroes are not considered significant figures when they are the leading or ending digits in a number. For example, both of the numbers 0.001 or 100 only have one significant figure because the zeroes are at the beginning and end.

Zeros between digits other than zero are always considered significant. The way I like to think of it is that those zeros can't be removed without changing the value of the number.

Leading zeros, such as the zeros in 0.001 don't count as sig figs, while trailing zeros, such as the zeros in 1.00 do count (when preceded by a decimal point). Anything in between two non-zero numbers such as the zeros in 1.001 count as well!
So just remember if it's a leading zero it's not a significant figure!

It is necessary to count the numbers between the non-zero as well so in this case you have 4 sig figs, we can practice sig figs later if you want Jackie :) I have a worksheet my TA gave me that helped a lot which I can share with you.

It would have 4 sig figs because the zeros are "embedded zeros" which are always significant.

In this case, the two zeros in the number would be considered significant because they are between two other significant figures. This results in the entire number in having a total of four significant figures.

Zeros between non zero digits are always significant

There are 4 significant figures because the zeros are in between 1s which are sig figs.

When there is a decimal in the number always count from left to right starting with the non zero number, any zero in between the nonzeros should still be accounted for. However, if there is no decimal then count from right to left starting with the first non zero number.