Question

Describe what is meant by the significant figures and order of magnitude.

Answer 1

Hint:Significant figures can be easily defined as the names suggest what they actually are, figures or digits that are significant. Order of magnitude can be thought about as a way to scale digits in multiples of 10s, per se, the magnitude.

Complete step by step answer:
In the given question, we need to describe what significant figures and order of magnitude mean.
So, we will be simply defining them along with providing some other relevant information that can be useful.

Significant figures:
Significant figures are the digits of value or figures which carry meaning, significance and relevance towards the resolution of the measurement. In other simpler words, Significant figures are the digits of the given value which actually are significant while we perform some mathematical operations on the value or maybe, just record the value. Appropriate number of significant data is important in order to have a meaningful level of power-resolution when reporting analytical data and performing mathematical operations. To find the significant figures in a value, various methods or parameters are developed to help determine how many significant figures are required. The term “significant figures” refers to the number of important or significant single digit integers (0 to 9 inclusive) in the coefficient of expression in the scientific notation. The number of significant figures in the expression indicates the confidence or precision with which an engineer or scientist records or reports a quantity.

Order of magnitude:
On the other hand, order of magnitude, is an exponential change in the power of 10 in the value of a quantity. In other simpler words, order of magnitude is a kind of approximation where we approximate digits as to how closer they are to the multiples of 10 or sometimes, the exponential value of 10. We can also say that order of magnitude refers to rough approximation. Example: around 100 could be anywhere from 50 to 200.

Note:There are various rules and methods using which one can determine the significant figures in a value that is being recorded or used to perform mathematical operations upon. Also, you are never advised to use the order of magnitude approximation in any question while solving it unless asked in the question to do so especially.