- #1
emberjelly
- 3
- 0
Homework Statement
Hi,
I am having a lot of trouble with significant figures, for no reason.
I will give an example of the kind of thing I can't understand. My teacher insists that the number of sig figs in an answer must equal the number of sig figs in the data with the least number of sig figs.
But what if I have a number (no specific question) which has data with 1 sig fig. And an answer that is, say, 150. Must I round this answer up to 200, thus achieving 1 sig fig, but at the cost of 25% of the accuracy of my calculation? This is the worst case I have encountered so far, but I see no mention in my "sig fig" guide of exceptions to the rules.
This is very important to me, as I have been frequently losing marks because I just can't bear to round some of my calculations so savagely.
Thank you!