How many significant figures are in the measurement 811.40 grams?

1 Answer
Aug 6, 2016

#5#

Explanation:

In order to be able to say how many sig figs are used for the measurement #"811.40 g"#, you need to know that

  • non-zero digits are always significant
  • a trailing zero that follows a decimal point and a non-zero digit is always significant

In your case, the measurement

#color(blue)(811).color(blue)(4)color(red)(0)#

has four non-zero digits and one significant trailing zero.

#color(blue)(8, 1, 1, 4) -># non-zero digits

#color(white)(8,1,1,)color(red)(0) -># significant trailing zero

Therefore, you can say that this measurement has five significant figures

#811.40 -># five significant figures