Chapter 1

Chemical formula and moles

1
 Standard form
• Is the method with which scientists write numbers
• It consists of two parts:
Part 1: number between 1 and 10
Part 2: 10 raised to positive or negative power
2X 103 2X 10-3

2000 0.002

2
Significant figures
• Method used to write physical quantities in numbers where the
accuracy of measurement is shown by the number of significant
figures to which quantity is quoted

3
Accuracy of measurements: significant
figures

4
 Significant figures

- 6±1ml significant between 5 and 7 and for 6.0± 0.1ml significant between 5.9 and
6.1ml
- Any number not zero is significant 85 and 1.2 two significant
- Zeros between non zeros are significants 40,501kg contains five significant
numbers
- Zero on left not significant 0.08ml contains one significant number
- For number greater than 1 zeros on right of decimal point count significant
40.620ml contains five significant figures
- numbers less than zeros; zeros in between number and on right are counted
(0.09050min has four significant figures
- Numbers without decimal point and zeros on right may or may not count as
significants 400 may have one, two or three significant so it is expressed as
4X102 5
Example:
Round up the number 526.84
Rounded to 4 significant figures = 526.8
Rounded to 3 significant figures = 527
Rounded to 2 significant figure = 530