sigfigs rounding numbers basics
goodmath | March 4, 2009 After my post the other day about rounding errors, I got a ton of
requests to explain the idea of significant figures. That's
actually a very interesting topic.
The idea of significant figures is that when you're doing
experimental work, you're taking measurements - and measurements
always have a limited precision. The fact that your measurements - the
inputs to any calculation or analysis that you do - have limited
precision, means that the results of your calculations likewise have
limited precision. Significant figures (or significant digits, or just "sigfigs" for short) are a method of…