Should Significant Figures be affected by constants?

[Nicholas Carpo 1L]

I am a confused by whether significant figures in solutions should be limited by the number of significant figures in constants.

For example:

If my given frequency is 5.11111 x 10^14 Hz (6 Significant Figures) and the constant for speed of light I use is 3.00 x 10^8 m/s (3 Significant Figures), should my final answer be 5.86957 x 10^-7 m (6 Significant Figures like the given) or 5.87 x 10^-7 m (3 Significant Figures like the constant).

tl;dr: Should the number of significant figures we use in constants affect the number of significant figures in the final answer?

[Mahir_Hasan2C]

It shouldn't affect the constants since they are typically rounded off. Typically, significant figures are for the shortest amount of digits.

[anthony_trieu2L]

The significant figures in your final answer should not be affected by the number of sig figs in your constants. Simply put, apply the sig figs rules based on the number of sig figs of the variable given to you in the problem. In your case, your final answer should be 5.86957 x 10^-7 m since 6 sig figs were assigned to the variable.

[305115396]

Sig figs are not affected by constants. The amount of sig figs that you use in your answer should be the amount of the value given in the problem.

[Kevin ODonnell 2B]

I don't believe a constant would effect the number of sig figs you should round to in your answer, but rather it should be a given number such as 5.0g since that is a number that the person asking the question can change based off how many significant figures they are looking for in the answer. There are a few helpful sig fig explanations on the Chem website. https://lavelle.chem.ucla.edu/class-websites/chem14a/

[Peichung Chou 1A]

Significant figures are not affected by constants that are input.

[Jeremy_Guiman2E]

Significant figures are not affected by constants similar to how measured values like 1m = 100 cm are not used as sig figs. You would just need to look at what numbers you are given in the actual question itself as constants do not affect the sig figs.

[Kyither Min 2K]

Constants do not affect significant figures since significant figures are a sense of how precise something is. Constants are known to be very precise and would have no affect on the final calculation for significant figures since it's already known to be precise.

[Yiting_Gong_4L]

Constants do not have an affect on the amount of sig figs to use.

[305008749]

when you guys say sig figs aren't affected by constants, does that mean we will still get the right answer if we use them or to not use it? In other words we should just ignore the constants and go based off the variables given to us?

[204765696]

Significant figures are not affected by constants. The important rule is to have the same amount of significant figures in your answer and in the value given in the original problem.