Measurements:

Every measurement has UNITS.

Every measurement has UNCERTAINTY.

Accuracy and Precision in Measurements

Accuracy: how close a measurement

is to the accepted value.
Precision: how close a series of
measurements are to one another or
how far out a measurement is taken.

A measurement can have high precision, but

not be as accurate as a less precise one.
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Significant Figures are used to indicate the precision of a

measured number or to express the precision of a calculation
with measured numbers.
In any
measurement
the digit farthest to
the right is
considered to be
estimated.

2
1.3

2.0
3

Sig. Fig. Rules (with measurements):

All non-zero digits are significant.
Zeros at the end of a measurement?
5000
5000

scientific notation:
5 x 103
5.0 x 103
5.00 x 103

5000
5000

5.000 x 103

5000.0

5.0000 x 103

5000.00

5.00000 x 103
4

Zeros at the beginning a number are not significant.

0.005
0.0050
0.00500
0.00505
Counted numbers and definitions (2.54 cm = 1 inch) are
considered to be exact and have no effect on the number of
sig. figs. reported in calculations with measurements.

Calculations with sig. Figs.

Addition and subtraction:
Look at places!

3.63 cm
13.129 cm
+123.1
cm
139.859

cm = 139.9 cm

significant to
the 0.1 place

Measurement Calculations with scientific notation.

Addition/subtraction: must be placed into the same notation.
(2.3 x 103) + (3.2 x 104) =
0.23 x 104
+3.2 x 104
3.43 x 104

= 3.4 x 104

Calculations with Sig. figs.

Multiplication and division (measurements):
You must be
able to
count.

2.734 cm x 5.2 cm x 8.1294 cm = 115.5740539 cm3

4 s.f.
2 s.f.
5 s.f.
written as 120 cm3
2 s.f.s
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1. The term that is related to the reproducibility

(repeatability) of a measurement is
a. accuracy.
Lets take a Quiz
b. precision.
b. precision.
c. qualitative.
d. quantitative.
e. property.
2. The number of significant figures in the mass
measured as 0.010210 g is
a. 1.
b. 2.
e. 5.
c. 3.
d. 4.
e. 5.
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3. The number of significant figures in 6.0700 x 10-4 is

a. 3.
b. 4.
c. 5.
c. 5.
d. 6.
e. 7.
4. How many significant figures are there in the value
0.003060?
a. 7
b. 6
c. 5
d. 4
d. 4
e. 3
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