Rounding and Significant Digits - Basic Mathematics for Water and Wastewater Operators - page 106

■ Example 5.2
Problem : How many significant figures are in a measurement of 1.35?
Solution : Three significant figures: 1, 3, and 5.
■ Example 5.3
Problem : How many significant figures are in a measurement of 0.000135?
Solution : Three significant figures: 1, 3, and 5. The three zeros are used only to place
the decimal point.
■ Example 5.4
Problem : How many significant figures are in a measurement of 103,500?
Solution : Four significant figures: 1, 0, 3, and 5. The remaining two zeros are used
to place the decimal point.
■ Example 5.5
Problem : How many significant figures are in 27,000.0?
Solution: Six significant figures: 2, 7, 0, 0, 0, 0. In this case, the “.0” means that the
measurement is precise to 1/10 unit. The zeros indicate measured values and are not
used solely to place the decimal point.