How many significant figures are in 7.00 x 10^2?

[EmilyJoo_1G]

I know that there are 3 significant figures in 7.00, but 7.00 x 10^2 is the same thing as 700. Trailing zeroes are only significant if the number contains a decimal, so wouldn't 7.00 x 10^2 have 1 significant figure since it basically is 700? Or does it still have 3?

[TimVintsDis4L]

Sig Figs have to do with any number that isn't a 0 or a 0 between two numbers.
So for example:
72345 has 5 Sig figs
72300 has 3 Sig figs
72032 has 5 sig figs

So in your case there are 3 sig figs.

[Chem_Mod]

There are 3 significant figures in 7.00 x 10^2 because the zeros after the decimal count as significant figures. This number will translate to 700. with a decimal at the end, thereby making it have 3 significant figures. If this number is written as 7 x 10^2 then it would only have one sigfig and would translate to 700 without a decimal at the end. Hope this clarified your question.

[Sartaj Bal 1J]

A helpful way to recall significant figures is to use the Atlantic and Pacific example. Atlantic, used in the ABSENCE of a decimal point, means to start from the right side of the number (the Atlantic Ocean is on the right side of the country) and go towards the left. Significant figures are counted from the first non zero number. Pacific, used in the PRESENCE of a decimal point, means to start from the left side of the number and go towards the right. Significant figures are once again counted from the first nonzero number. Just to clarify, in both examples if a non zero number is followed by a zero, the zero is counted as a significant figure. I hope this helps!

[Avnita C_4B]

7.00x10^2 and 700 are the same numbers but different notation. So the significant figures for both are 3 as the sig. figures are based on the amount of integers, including 0 after a number or decimal.

[005206171]

7.00 x 10^3 has three sig figs because when there is a decimal, all the zeroes are significant (including those inbetween integers and after them). 700 is another way of saying the same thing, but only has 1 sig fig because when there are no decimals, only 0s in between numbers are significant, not trailing zeroes (as in 7.00)

[Sanjana Munagala_1j]

7.00 x 10^2, has three sig figures because any numbers after a decimal point counts. If the number was just 700 then it would only be 1 sig fig and can be written as just 7 x 10^2. If it was 700. (followed by a period), then there are three sig figs.

Hope that helps!

[Amanda Ung 4D]

There would be 3 sigfigs in 7.00 x 10^2. Despite it being 700, the notation matters. Therefore if your answer was 700 but you needed to make it 2 sigfigs, you would put your answer as 7.00x10^2.

[serenabirkhoff_1K]

Thank you so much all these responses helped a lot to know the difference in sig figs when using scientific notation like 7.00 x 10^2 versus 7 x 10^2.

[Harry Zhang 1B]

It has 3 significant figures because when looking at significant figures in scientific notation, we only look at number on the left side, and since 7.00 has a decimal point, it has 3 significant figures. Another way to look at this is that this number is accurate to the hundredth place, so even if you are multiplying it by 100, you would want to keep the decimal point(700.), which has 3 sig.fig..

[Viviana Velasquez]

You would have 3 significant figures because the zeros after the decimal are counted as significant figures.

[kristi le 2F]

The fact that the decimal is purposefully placed in the number means that you must count the zeroes after the decimal as significant. The power of 10 is not counted when considering significant figures.

[CalvinTNguyen2D]

There'd be only 3 sig figs! We don't consider the power in the scientific notion, only the 7.00. Going by that, there would be 3, one before the decimal, and one after.

[Jiapeng Han 1C]

Just 3! A quick method to count number of significant figures would be you start counting from the first NON-ZERO digit--that is 7! Ignore any decimal point.

[Aria Movassaghi 1A]

It has 3 sig figs because there is a decimal point. Therefore, the 0's count as sig figs.

[Brianna Chen 3F]

When dealing with scientific notation, specifically when a number is multiplied by a 10^x, the number of sig figs is counted by the number that appears before the multiplication sign. Therefore, in this case, 7.00 x 10^2 has three significant figures because we only focus on the 7.00 portion of the number!

[Ethan Goode 2H]

7.00 x 10^2 would still have 3 significant figures. This would equate to "700." not just "700." When putting an answer in scientific notation, always keep the amount of sig figs the same. For example, putting 6270 into scientific notation would be 6.27 x 10^3, staying at the original 3 sig figs, but if it was "6270." then the scientific notation would be 6.270 x 10^3

[Mingzi Yang 1E]

7.00 x 10^2 has three significant figures. The way I understand it is that we mainly focus on the number "7.00". Since 7.00 has a decimal in between 7 and the two zeros, the two zeros after the decimal will also be considered to be significant figures.

[Heidi Buri 2I]

I think there would be three significant figures as all non-zero digits are considered significant figures and all trailing zeros after a decimal point are also considered significant figures. In this case, 7 would be a significant figure as it is a non-zero value, and the two zeros after the decimal point would also be significant figures. If the number was 700, and there was no demure point, there would only be one significant figure.

[Sam Wentzel 1F 14B]

Decimal points make 0's in terms of significant figures work a bit differently than normal.

Normally, 0's following a nonzero number are not counted toward significant figures.
Example: # Sig. figs. in 700 are 1. The significant figure itself is 7.
Another example: # Sig. figs. in 2300 are 2. The significant figures are 2 and 3.

But when decimal points come into play, the rules are different. Here, if there is a nonzero number before the decimal point, then all numbers are counted as significant figures. Example of this: 35.000 # of sig. figs. = 5. The significant figures are 3, 5, 0, 0, and 0 respectively.

However, when there are NO nonzero numbers before the decimal point, we only begin counting the significant figures beginning with the first nonzero number after the decimal point. Example of this: 0.00035300 # of sig figs = 5. The significant figures themselves are 3, 5, 3, 0, and 0 respectively.

It helps to think of these types of problems in terms of scientific notation. 0.00035300 would be expressed in SI notation as: 3.5300 x 10^-4.
Notice that the number of digits that appears before the " 10^-4 " term is 5. This indicates the number of significant figures.

We can apply this principle to 7.00 x 10^2. Here, we see that there is a 7 preceding the decimal point (a nonzero number) so we must ALL of the digits before and after the decimal point. Therefore there are 3 significant figures in 7.00 x 10^2, and the 10^2 itself is to be disregarded when determining significant figures. :D

[Chudi Onyedika 3A]

There are 3 significant figures; 7 is a significant figure because it is a non-zero number, and the 2 zeros are significant figures as well because they trail after a decimal point.

[Gabe_Ek 1G]

There are 3 significant figures here, in this case, 7 is a significant figure due to it being a non zero number, and the 2 zeros after the decimal points are also significant figures because it is after the decimal point. If it was to be written in standard notation (700), then 7 would be the only significant figure in this case.

[Reese_Gover2K]

Since 7.00 x 10^2 would become 700. and not just 700 there would be a decimal at the end making those zeros sig figs and therefore 7.00 x 10^2 has 3 sig figs.

[Sean Phen]

7.00 x10^2 is the same thing as 700. So, there are 3 significant figures in the number: 700. In other words, 7.00 x 10^2 also has 3 significant figures. 7.00 x 10^2 is just worded or phrased differently from 700.

I always have struggles when determining with significant figures. My tip is to look up the rules of significant figures and make a list with examples. With examples, I can compare it to other numbers as well because the concept is the same. To memorize these different rules, I usually make flashcards for each rule with an example.

[Jeremy Wei 2C]

Hi! 700 only has 1 sig fig because there is no decimal but since 7.00 x 10^2 has a decimal with two trailing zeros behind it (zeros behind decimals are considered significant) it would have 3 sig figs.

[David Liu 1E]

There would be 3 sig figs on this because it specified 7.00 and all trailing zeros behind a decimal are significant. If the question had written 700 it would probably be one though, so I'm fairly certain it's based on how the question is worded.