[glamorousbride]

Express the numbers listed to three significant figures, writing the numbers in the first column in normal notation and the numbers in the second column in powers of 10(scientific notation)

Express in Three significant figures

0.524
15.08
1444
0.0254
83,909


Scientific notation:

5280
0.060
82.453
0.00010
2,700,000,000

[Curlyben]

Please refer to this Announcement

[dmatos]

Gentlemen, I believe that glamorousbride has asked a valid question. They have asked for someone to explain the instructions, not solve the homework problem itself.

Glamorousbride, in response to your request:

Numbers can be represented in many different ways. They can be expressed in words (one million), in decimal digits (1,000,000), in digits of other bases (0xF4240 in hexadecimal). Also, the way numbers are written can also sometimes convey additional information, such as the level of confidence in the accuracy of a measurement. Say for example, you used a ruler to measure a length of string. Writing 2.5 means that you believe that is the length, to the nearest tenth of a unit.

If someone were to lay 234,968 identical pieces of string end to end, you might be inclined to say that the total length would be 587,420 units. If the string is actually 2.51 units long, and your ruler is not fine enough to measure that, then the total length would be 589,769.68 units, a difference of over two thousand units. According to the rules of significant digits, the answer you should give for the total length is actually 590,000.

Significant digits are what are used to indicate a measure of confidence in numbers, and ensure that you don't have more precision in your final answer than you do in your input numbers.

If this question has been asked of you, then you should have recently been taught about significant digits. A quick Google will probably show you how, if you can't find the answer in your textbooks.

Scientific notation is helpful in expressing very large or very small numbers. It is also very similar to how floating-point numbers are stored in computer memory. A number in scientific notation will be expressed in the form:

#.###### x 10^###

Again, your textbook should tell you how to express normal numbers in these terms, but if you can't find it there, look to Google, then ask back here again.

[glamorousbride]

Thank you- as you said I was just asking for the instruction because my lab manual didn't clarify it.

It's a college physics course and it is a 1 credit lab course. I'm not worried about it, but I don't want to look completely ridiculous in the instructor's eyes.

Thanks for the clarification!