Mathematics Rules:
Scientific Notation:
1.
number must
be 1 £
n < 10
2.
if you move
decimal left, exponent increases
3.
if you move
decimal right, exponent decreases
4.
adding or
subtracting, exponents must be the same
5.
multiplying,
exponents are added
6.
dividing,
exponents are subtracted
7.
watch
negative exponents carefully
8.
converting to
scientific notation does not affect significant digits
9.
don't bother
using 101, 100, 10-1
Significant Figures:
1.
all non-zero
digits are significant
2.
zeros between
other digits are significant
3.
trailing
zeros to the right of the decimal are significant [0.30]
4.
zeros to the right of the decimal that are
used to space to the decimal are not significant (i.e. 0.0030 [2 sig. figs.])
5.
zeros to the left of the decimal are not
significant unless the decimal point is present (i.e. 12000 [2 sig. figs.] but
12000. [5 sig. figs.])
6.
line over a
zero indicates last significant digit (the estimated digit)
7.
adding and
subtracting, answer can only have as many decimal places as the least precise
measurement
8.
multiplying
and dividing, answer will be rounded to the same number of significant digits
as the measurement with the smallest number of significant figures
9.
you must
estimate one digit beyond that of the graduations on the measuring device
10.
if you are
rounding a terminal five, round up if the preceding digit is odd, drop the five
if the preceding digit is even
11.
exact numbers
or counters are not considered when determining how many significant digits an
answer should have
12.
keep one
extra significant digit if you are going to perform more calculations with an
answer