8: Counting significant figures

[@edwinwollet848]

2:41 Referring to 0.00502 cm. Why are the first two zeros right of the decimal place not significant? I can see why they would not be significant if we wrote this number in scientific notation; however, I don't see why they are not significant as written and why the number in this problem has four as opposed to six significant figures.

[@RoxiHulet]

This is a very good question. The zeros at the very left of a decimal-ed number are just there to express the magnitude of the number. They're definitely important! However, the term "significant" is only used to communicate accuracy/uncertainty in the measured portion of a number. Those initial zeros communicate the size, but they don't communicate anything about the actual measurement. I hope that makes sense!

[@edwinwollet848]

@@RoxiHulet Makes sense; thanks!