Significant figures help

Hey, just having a significant figures crisis..
In 56027, why is the 0 significant, but in 0.0046 the 0s after the decimal point aren't significant? Surely they are just both place holders?

Reply 1

manahilhu

Hi there are a few simple rules so:

in 56027 0 is significant figure as zeros between non-zero digits are significant (this case the zero is in-between 6 and 2 which are non-zero digits so zero becomes a significant figure)

in 0.0046 the 0 is not a significant figure as : zeros on the right of a decimal point and to the left of a non-zero digit are not significant but also remember that trailing zeros are only significant if the if a non-zero digit before but in this case before our trailing zero there is no non-zero digit so the 0 in this case is not significant

p.s (this may seem confusing sorry its how i have learnt it in school try watch on yt video to explain it better)

Reply 2

Meheraj

Original post by Emmmaaaa...

Hey, just having a significant figures crisis..
In 56027, why is the 0 significant, but in 0.0046 the 0s after the decimal point aren't significant? Surely they are just both place holders?