- #1
ThomasMagnus
- 138
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How many sig figs would be in the final answer of the following question.
A car is driven 215 km west and then 85km southwest. What is the displacement of the car from the point of origin (magnitude and direction)?
Now in the book they list the answer as 282km and 12 degrees south of west.
Should the answer to the correct number of significant digits be 2.8x10^2 km? Reason being the 85 is limiting the final answer to 2 sig figs. It seems to be done correctly for the angle, it is 2 sig figs.
Am I missing something here, or is there a mistake in the book?
So is it step by step or is the whole question limited to 2 sig figs by the given data (85) and is it always like this?
Thanks!
A car is driven 215 km west and then 85km southwest. What is the displacement of the car from the point of origin (magnitude and direction)?
Now in the book they list the answer as 282km and 12 degrees south of west.
Should the answer to the correct number of significant digits be 2.8x10^2 km? Reason being the 85 is limiting the final answer to 2 sig figs. It seems to be done correctly for the angle, it is 2 sig figs.
Am I missing something here, or is there a mistake in the book?
So is it step by step or is the whole question limited to 2 sig figs by the given data (85) and is it always like this?
Thanks!