CHEM 18.
1 Sections 1L and 16L
MLAlvarez
DRILL 1: SIGNIFICANT FIGURES, ROUNDING OFF NUMBERS,
AND UNIT CONVERSIONS USING DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS
SIGNIFICANT FIGURES
- are the meaningful digits in a measured or calculated quantity.
They are used to indicate the margin of error in a measurement
since it is often impossible to obtain the exact value of the
quantity under investigation.
TOLERANCE
- uncertainty in a measurement made with the glassware
INSTRUMENT/GLASSWARE TOLERANCE
analytical balance ±0.0001 g
10-mL pipet ±0.02 mL
50-mL buret ±0.05 mL
10-mL graduated cylinder ±0.20 mL
100-mL graduated cylinder ±1.0 mL
*applicable for class A glassware, as calibrated to
specifications by ASTM (American Society for Testing and
Materials)
When reporting readings or measurements, values are
expressed correspondingly with the indicated calibration.
GUIDELINES FOR USING/COUNTING SIGNIFICANT FIGURES
1. Nonzero integers. All non-zero digits are significant.
2. Zeros. There are three classes of zeros:
a. Leading zeros - zeros that precede all the nonzero digits. They
are NOT counted as significant figures.
b. Captive zeros – zeros between nonzero digits. They ALWAYS
count as significant figures.
c. Trailing zeros - zeros at the right end of the number. They are
significant ONLY if the number contains a decimal point.
3. Exact numbers. Many times calculations involve numbers
that were not obtained using measuring devices but were
determined by counting. Such numbers are called exact
numbers. They can be assumed to have an infinite number of
significant figures. Exact numbers can also arise from
definitions.
RULES FOR SIGNIFICANT FIGURES IN MATHEMATICAL
OPERATIONS
1. For multiplication or division, the number of significant
figures in the result is the same as the number in the least
precise measurement used in the calculation.
2. For addition or subtraction, the result has the same number
of decimal places as the least precise measurement used in the
calculation.
3. When taking the logarithm of a certain value, the number of
significant figures of the argument (the one inside the
parenthesis of the logarithm) should be equal to the number of
digits of the mantissa.
4. Exponentiation or antilogarithm is the conversion of the
logarithms back to get the argument. It uses the same rules
when taking the logarithm of a value. The number of digits in the
mantissa corresponds to the number of significant figures of the
argument.
SCIENTIFIC NOTATION
- a system of writing very large or very small numbers into a
simplified form that minimizes the occurrence of the digit ‘zero’
(0).
- can be expressed in the form:
N × 10n
where N is a number between 1 and 0 and n is a whole
number. Take note that there should be only one digit before the
decimal point in the N expression. Moving the decimal point to
the left must make n a positive integer while moving the
decimal point to the right must make n a negative integer.
RULES FOR ROUNDING
1. In a series of calculations, carry the extra digits through to the
final result, then round.
2. If the digit to be removed
a. is less than 5, the preceding digit stays the same.
b. is equal to or greater than 5, the preceding digit is
increased by 1.