26.07.2021 Views

The Basics of General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry, 2011

The Basics of General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry, 2011

The Basics of General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry, 2011

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

measure the width <strong>of</strong> a table. <strong>The</strong> centimeters (cm) are marked <strong>of</strong>f, telling you how<br />

many centimeters wide the table is. Many metersticks also have millimeters (mm)<br />

marked <strong>of</strong>f, so we can measure the table to the nearest millimeter. But most metersticks<br />

do not have any finer measurements indicated, so you cannot report the table’s width<br />

any more exactly than to the nearest millimeter. All you can do is estimate the next<br />

decimal place in the measurement<br />

(http://catalog.flatworldknowledge.com/bookhub/reader/2547?e=gob-chab - gob-ch01_s05_f01).<br />

Figure 1.7 Measuring an Object to the Correct Number <strong>of</strong> Digits<br />

How many digits should be reported for the length <strong>of</strong> this object?<br />

<strong>The</strong> concept <strong>of</strong> significant figures takes this limitation into account. <strong>The</strong><br />

significant figures <strong>of</strong> a measured quantity are defined as all the digits known with<br />

certainty <strong>and</strong> the first uncertain, or estimated, digit. It makes no sense to report any<br />

Saylor URL: http://www.saylor.org/books<br />

Saylor.org<br />

37

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!